Word: offbeat
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Tribune has shed almost completely a tradition of Midwestern Republican dogmatism, and it covers Chicago's tumultuous Democratic machine fairly. Among the paper's stars are Columnists Bob Greene, who specializes in offbeat portraits of ordinary people, and Mike Royko, a Chicago institution who jumped to the Trib along with about a dozen others when Australian Press Lord Rupert Murdoch took over its tabloid rival, the Sun-Times...
...returning to Cambridge, and all the seemingly endless darkness, clouds, and rain, fire murky, malevolent impulses find their perfect expression in the Mather House Drama Society production of Antonin Artaud's The Cenci. The little-known play, set in sixteenth century Italy, details the family problems of the slightly offbeat Duke of Cenci, who in the course of the play turns Oedipus on his ear by killing his sons and sleeping with his daughter...
...traditional standards, Kuralt's stories often are not news at all. They are authentic, uplifting Americana-folksy, but never cute or dismissive. He looks for people, sometimes whole communities, who have offbeat pursuits or experiences, and he takes them seriously. He seeks "stories that confirm that this is a remarkable country." Over the years, Kuralt has profiled an Iowa farmer who built a yacht in his barnyard, a retired West Virginia coal miner who sculpts statuary in coal, and the arcane Florida ritual of "worm grunting," catching bait with the use of wooden stakes and truck springs. Some...
Looking for an offbeat investment prospect? Well, consider a St. Paul company called American Hoist & Derrick. A typically depressed heavy-equipment manufacturer, Amhoist lost $21.8 million last year and is expected to wind up in the red again this year. Two of its primary markets, the petroleum and timber industries, remain sluggish. Its stock has been sagging in the bull market and now sells for $15, vs. a high of $26, reached...
Granted both cover serious and breaking stories. But such items often receive relatively little space or time. Instead, in USA Today, for instance, one finds daily columns like "Offbeat USA," which promises to give the "human side of the news." On August 30, "Offbeat" offered these "human" stories: "Iowa man munches 22 hot dogs in 2 hours" and "100 frogs are in woman's menagerie." And on September 6: "Residents are asked to adopt a pothole." Stories like these make USA Today the Muzak of print journalism. They won't challenge you, or make you think, but they'll pass...