Word: oftenly
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Ever since the first Harry Potter smash in 2001, the industry has been looking for that next killer franchise of movies based on famous books for children. The quest has often proved fruitless. The Spiderwick Chronicles and The Golden Compass expired after one episode; and the first two films based on C.S. Lewis's Narnia novels became so expensive that Disney ditched the idea of making a third. (It has been picked up elsewhere.) Hard to say whether Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon, will flourish on screen, but it has a hopeful start, for which director Chris Columbus deserves...
...greater danger of captivity is to the animals themselves. Tiger cubs that are bought as pets - it can be done online, legally - are often abandoned once they get bigger and considerably less cute. Reserves and sanctuaries can take some of the unwanted tigers, but many refuges have been overwhelmed by demand...
...Sure, these stories are charming. Too often, however, the connection between the athletes and the countries they represent is tenuous at best. Though athletes are required to be citizens of the countries they're competing for, that definition of "citizen" varies widely from one country to the next. It's a problem that has spread across a spectrum of sports. A Pittsburgh-bred point guard, who speaks little Russian, suited up for Russia's basketball team during the Beijing Olympics. African distance runners have competed for Bahrain, and American baseball players for Italy. But the tie between country and competitor...
...that element of fortune." Pa Jonathan, a canoe-maker from southern Nigeria, could not shake the thought. "I just said to myself, 'this boy is lucky,'" he said. "So I decided to call him Goodluck." The father's instinct proved true. But his son's good fortune would often come after the misfortune of others. In 1999, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was elected deputy governor of Bayelsa province in the south - only to become governor when his boss was arrested for embezzlement. This week Jonathan, elected Vice President of Nigeria in 2007, has become acting president after the country's parliament...
...septuagenarian Clark, who has suddenly become one of the most influential men in Africa, is another factor. Nigerian leaders often come with a powerful mentor working behind the scenes; a backer whose office is the only way to get to the big guy. On Feb. 11, two days after his protégé took office, a mass of Nigeria's rich, powerful and wannabes - parliamentarians, former ministers, ex-governors, a former police chief and even the head of a state-owned television station - crowded into the expansive living room of Clark's Abuja mansion. Clark sensed his growing power...