Word: particular
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Arnold didn't mention any funnyman in particular. He didn't have to. In an essay six years earlier, he had already attacked by name the most famous American funnyman of all, Mark Twain. His humor, Arnold sniffed, was "so attractive to the Philistine." It would be truer to say it was attractive to anyone who valued plain speaking and the kind of deadly wit that could cut through the cant and hypocrisy surrounding any topic, no matter how sensitive: war, sex, religion, even race. Twain was righteous without being pious, angry for all the right reasons and funny...
Religiosity prevailed in Twain's era but not in his heart. Though one of his closest friends, Joseph Twichell, was a minister, Twain derided religions--Christianity, in particular--and the notion of a benevolent deity. His strongest written sacrileges were not published, however, until well after his death. He was a more interesting disbeliever in some ways than today's Bill Maher or Sam Harris or Christopher Hitchens, who readily dismiss religion as inflammatory nonsense. Twain, who was full of inflammatory nonsense, could appreciate the indigenous blessednesses he encountered around the world. Stopping in Benares, India, "the sacredest of sacred...
Among the 45-and-over set, senior citizens in particular have little exposure to sexual-health information, and few places to seek it out. Primary-care physicians would be the natural source, but Lee worries that too many doctors avoid the topic because they feel uncomfortable discussing it with older patients, or worse, they make the "dangerous assumption that older people are not engaging in sex after a certain age." That lack of communication perpetuates ignorance. So, Lee says that until comprehensive sex-ed measures are established for older people, it may fall to younger generations to teach their elders...
...single-bound version of her first three Plum novels. The way the story goes, Stephanie is recent divorcee and a resident of Trenton, N.J., who, after losing her job as a lingerie purchaser, decides to work as a bounty hunter. There’s one man in particular, a devastatingly good-looking cop-slash-criminal named Joseph Morelli, who keeps popping up throughout Plum’s cleverly narrated and endearingly fumbling crime-fighting scenes. Drama ensues; romance buds...
...this particular sweaty sketch-fest is far removed from the blowouts I’ve hosted in my Kirkland suite or in the basement of my house in Queens. I’m in Seoul, but if it weren’t for the Korean welcome signs at the airport, I might never have guessed...