Word: outerness
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...spherical, as is the AIDS variety. Whatever their shape, all viruses have something in common. They are models of biological minimalism, consisting simply of a core of genetic material -- either a DNA or RNA molecule -- and a protective envelope made of proteins (most varieties have a double coat, the outer one consisting either of another protein shell, or of proteins and lipids, fatty substances similar to those in a cell membrane). "There's no waste in a virus," says Dr. Stephen Straus of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). "Every piece is there for a reason. It's a magnificent...
...reader that the unreal is actually occurring. Critic Jacques Barzun once analyzed the technique of the effective horror novelist: "Since terror descriptions must perpetually make the reader accept yet question the strange amid the familiar, the writer pursues the muse of ambiguity. He begins by establishing a solid outer shell of comfort -- the clergyman's study, the lawyer's book-lined room, the well-placed camping tent, or the cozy room at the inn or club, with fortifying drinks at hand. But soon a vague unease, a chill in the air, or else a strong shock undermines or shatters composure...
...beginning, Yosemite Sam, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the gang. In a surge of adolescent enthusiasm, King burbled, "Wouldn't it be great to bring on all the monsters one last time? Bring them all on -- Dracula, Frankenstein, Jaws, The Werewolf, The Crawling Eye, Rodan, It Came from Outer Space, and call it It." But how could he combine them all in one book? Simple. Use a Tulpa -- the Tibetan word for a creature created by the mind...
...Tanner family of NBC's new sitcom ALF has an unusual pet -- an E.T.-like visitor from outer space -- but in most other respects the Tanners are the very picture of TV normality. When Dad comes home from work and gets fawned over by his teenage daughter, he instantly guesses, as TV fathers have done for decades, that she wants to borrow the car. And as they have also done for decades, he puts his foot down: no driving on a school night. "If we don't respect the rules we make, we're never going to respect each other...
...When a spaceship crashes through the roof of the Tanners' garage, out pops a wisecracking alien, who promptly moves in with the family. The Tanners accept this turn of events with amazing matter-of-factness, but ALF is no place to look for plausibility -- or charm. The outer-space visitor looks like an Ewok from the wrong side of the tracks and talks like Charlie the Tuna. In no time he is barging into the bathroom, hogging the stereo headset and cranking out ancient one-liners ("Do you get Sesame Street where you live?" "No, and frankly...