Word: peculiarities
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Lebanese politics for over a decade. However earnest the Marines in their desire to bring peace and democracy to this pitiful, war-torn country, their presence can not change the sectional hatred and hostility that has fragmented Lebanon for many years. Dozens of armed factions, each with its own peculiar aims and loyalties, will continue to bicker and fight regardless of any foreign military presence. Foreign armies many times larger than a meager batallion of Marines have unsuccessfully tried to pacify Lebanon. Faced with a pointless, perepetuzl war of attrition Israel chose to withdraw. Why then is the United States...
Sprinters do not ordinarily sign up for marathons, nor do lonely long-distance runners enter the crush of 100-yard dashes. But some authors perform an analogous feat by writing both short stories and novels. Instead of being complimented on their versatility, though, they frequently encounter a peculiar problem: facing themselves as competitors. Choices, so the assumption goes, must be made. Which Hemingway is the ultimate winner, the one who broke so many tapes in In Our Time or the one who strode with such manly endurance through The Sun Also Rises? Which O'Hara, which Welty, which Cheever...
...husband, the art dealer Ernest. By now Gilda, an interior designer, is totally in control, both of her husband and of her high society clientele. Leo and Otto, reconciled, show up to reclaim her, though, and the three go off happily in modern menage a trois fashion and a peculiar mix of sexual liberation and sentimentality. The simple moral of the tale is that "Certain emotions transcend even taste" -- even among the most superficial people...
...televised resignation speech was a peculiar performance. In some ways, it sounded like a State of the Union address, a recitation of his achievements. He admitted no guilt, only casually did he mention mistakes made "in the best interests of the nation." If some expected a bitter, angry valedictory, Nixon was controlled and ultimately conciliatory. Nixon once said that the test of a people is the way it handles the transition of power, and last week-in his resignation speech if not in his mawkish, self-pitying White House goodbye-he deserved credit for helping to bring off the transition...
...animal rights issue has developed a peculiar power. Although a candidate running on an animal liberation ticket in 1984 might provoke witticisms about dark horses and fat cats, he or she would receive a respectably serious share of popular sympathy, if not of the popular vote. It is not some revolution that has suddenly come to critical mass, but it is there, a presence...