Word: payoff
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Hansen's pleasantly elliptical narrative slides over a 10-year period at the end of which the author returns to North Yemen to retrieve his journals, buried for safekeeping on the island. It is not much of a payoff, though along the way Hansen delivers a lush portrait of a society that has managed to survive even though there seems to be a Kalashnikov for every copy of the Koran...
...vintage, the Pentagon has staked its reputation on its state-of-the-art showpieces. For 40 years, it has pursued a sometimes controversial doctrine that says the best way to counter a potential adversary's superior numbers is with superior technology. Now military experts are watching the payoff with excitement but also apprehension. The high-speed electronics and precision engineering that make the new weapons so effective also make them vulnerable...
...fidelity has its rewards. Remember how, in the other Godfathers, nearly every religious ceremony (baptism, festival, funeral) is accompanied by a murder? As in the first film, G3 has a spectacular payoff: accounts of honor settled with elaborate vengefulness. As in the second film, a fearful price is paid for power, and Michael is left alone to consider the cost...
...battle is the payoff, as the ancient saying goes, and only battle can settle the question of what a war between the U.S.-led alliance and Iraq would be like. Would it be a brief though explosive clash in which American air power would quickly prevail with relatively light casualties? A long, grinding struggle on the ground with the killed and wounded on both sides counted in the scores of thousands? Or something in between...
Many of these industries are vulnerable to racketeering because of their high labor costs. Payoffs to the Mob can assure businessmen of prompt deliveries, labor peace and the ability to use cheaper workers. Following indictments in June involving a painters' union, the Manhattan district attorney's office estimated that an average $15 million-a-year painting contractor saved $3.8 million in costs by paying gangsters. How? The payoff entitled the contractor to use low-wage painters without getting any flak from the mobbed-up union. But in the end, consumers often pay the price. Economists estimate that Cosa Nostra...