Word: original
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Intercut with the tales of his voyages with Darwin are chapters depicting Covington's old age. Settled on the Australian coast, he awaits the delivery of an early copy of The Origin of Species. A reader's expectation, of course, is that the book will blow away Covington's Christian piety, but it's a measure of McDonald's wisdom and subtle understanding of human ties that something altogether stranger happens. Evolution, as Mr. Darwin's Shooter demonstrates, is driven by forces more nuanced and mysterious than the crude survival of the fittest...
Luckily, Wright doesn't take anything too seriously until later in the movie when she's forced to play this silly melodrama straight. As a research lackey for a Chicago Tribune columnist, she finally does something fun as she tracks down the origin of the letter. Her selfish motivation is oddly reminiscent of Meg Ryan's valiant quest in Sleepless in Seattle. But whereas the latter is whimsical and heart-warming, the Penn-Costner combination is a bust from the start. In fact, Wright has more chemistry with the man she initially mistakes for G than with Costner, her dream...
...time we landed, the story was all over TV. Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh was railing about "some poor overeducated slob" losing his job for using a "Swedish word," a reference to niggardly's origin in 14th century Scandinavia. Keith Watters, former president of the mostly black National Bar Association, asked in conspiratorial tones, "Do we really know where the Norwegians got the word?" Buckwheat said, "I've got some calls to make...
...were a few points I did not understand. You said Raul Salinas' wife, using an alias, carried cashier's checks to Citibank Mexico City. Since these were for very large sums of money, I should think someone in Citibank's private-banking unit would have asked immediately about the origin of that money. Further, you noted that once Citibank had the funds, "no documents linked that money to Salinas." That shows an extraordinary amount of trust on Salinas' part. How could he ever prove the money was his? The bank could have cheated him out of his money...
...Shahak?s strong showing in opinion polls is based on Israelis projecting their own political attitudes onto a man bound to silence by military discipline, says Beyer. Israeli voting patterns reflect a fierce divide between Israelis of European origin and those who immigrated from Arab countries. ?Right now there?s little indication that Shahak will be able to bridge that divide,? says Beyer. After all, a military background is the rule rather than the exception among Israel?s leaders...