Word: parlous
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...Britain's top-secret Cheltenham communications center, pleaded guilty to charges of spying for the Soviet Union. It was enough to give the already rattled British a bad case of jitters. Said a group of Conservative Members of Parliament who called for a judicial investigation of the "parlous" state of British security: "The time for bland assurances is long past...
...that the albums are in competition with each other, although both are on the same label, Columbia, and Bruce has frequently, and unfairly, been used as a stick to deliver a few critical raps on Billy's noggin. Much more interesting is the fact that, in parlous economic times, when the record business is suffering heavy sales deprivation and audiences are supposed to want only bantamweight escapism, two serious, ambitious, even dour, albums have scored big by hanging tough...
...other 25 U.S. correspondents in the U.S.S.R., and has shown a flair for finding stories that irk the sensibilities of the Kremlin. This month, for instance, Newsweek carried Nagorski's report on the anxieties of draft-age youths in Tajikistan, a republic bordering the Soviet client government of parlous Afghanistan. Earlier he had detailed the fondness of ranking bureaucrats for racy Western films that are banned for the Soviet masses, and had exposed the bribes extracted by a circus director who chose which performers traveled abroad. More consequential, in April Newsweek nettled the Soviets with a decidedly premature cover...
...labor force, are unemployed, a rise of 15% since Mitterrand took office. Inevitably, the franc has come under attack as confidence in Socialist economic management has dwindled. Since March, France's central bank has spent about $8 billion to support its currency, leaving the government with a parlous $2.7 billion in reserves...
...descent into a sea of polyester leisure suits at the Americana Hotel or a lengthy sojourn in a Ukrainian cafeteria in the east twenties. Though craven in the utmost, he dashes off to Djibouti or Jakarta at a moments notice, spewing out words along the way like "henbane," "anchor," "parlous," "jardiniere" as well as an occasional "zounds" or "sweet-patootie". A cultural sponge that oozes erudition and arcana, he recalls Yeats in the same breath that he expounds on an ancient tooth powder advertisement. No matter what guise he shows up in, Perelman's persona is a curious mixture...