Word: peculiar
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Kenneth Koch, 52, a bespectacled, bushy-haired poet and English professor at Columbia, has a peculiar knack of finding poets in unlikely places. In 1968, for example, he whisked into Manhattan's P.S. 61 and, before they could say "Charlie Brown," had sixth-graders versifying about their favorite heroes and fantasies. The result was Wishes, Lies and Dreams, an anthology of the students' poems and a how-to guide for teaching poetry to the young...
...level platform of action. But whereas Tolstoy flashed light on the everyday existence of ordinary men and women, what drama there is in the adaptation, first performed in 1955 in Berlin, must be released in a series of stunning special effects simulating the horrors of war from above. The peculiar predicament of characters adhering fiercely to free choice in a determined world--of Andrei, Prince Bolkonski who gets sucked into the wars, of Natasha Rostova, his young fiancee who does not manage to remain faithful, of the Bolkonski serfs who incite an abortive revolt--all positioned so carefully...
Beyond that, terrorists sometimes benefit from a peculiar sanction. If they justify kidnaping or murder in the name of social justice, there is a chance that they will be excused, or at least create confusion. Says David Rapoport, professor of political science at U.C.L.A.: "This country allows acts under the guise of politics and morality that it wouldn't otherwise accept...
...regained control of her she slipped her secret document, the application form from the Shanghai Party organization, out of the corner of her waistcoat. As fast as possible, she stuffed it into her mouth, chewed it vigorously, and swallowed. The sensation of paper passing into her system was peculiar to say the least. Yet she knew that she had destroyed all visible evidence of that incriminating affiliation...
Savior's Day was observed once again last week, but this time as "Survival Day." The name change, signifying Fard's downgraded status, is only the latest indication that the movement has abandoned virtually all its peculiar views. The man who has directed these sweeping changes in the two years since Elijah Muhammad's death is his son, Wallace D. Muhammad, 43, whom Fard had predestined as leader before he was even born...