Word: petrol
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Three huge derricks have gone up on a 17-square-mile triangle at Hassi Messaoud, and high-grade oil has been penetrated in a 450-ft.-thick layer at 12,500 ft. Estimated capacity of the field: 300 million tons (15 times France's yearly petrol consumption). It is planned to have 20 wells operating by the end of 1958. The excitement of bringing in the big "bear cats" does not disturb the calm of the bespectacled chief engineer, Christian Redron, who wears nothing but khaki shorts and sandals on a skinny frame burned to leather...
...attack in Commons, proposing a vote of censure against the government's Suez policy. With cool remorselessness, Opposition Leader Hugh Gaitskell ticked off the consequences of the Suez war-"the blocking of the canal, the cutting of the pipelines, the strain on the pound, the introduction of petrol rationing,* the check to industrial expansion, a tremendous blow to our reputation in the world." The upshot, needled Gaitskell, was that "we are now forced to accept [from Egypt] terms far worse than those demanded earlier." Worse yet, the U.S. had supplanted Britain as the dominant power in the Middle East...
Make It Ugly. Then, abrupt as a blow, came Les Demoiselles d' Avignon, a painting done in 1907 depicting five dramatic salmon-pink nudes, their faces hideous as primitive African masks. On seeing the painting, French Painter Georges Braque gasped: "You are asking us to drink petrol in order to spit fire." Today, Demoiselles, which made primitive art an accepted fountainhead of modern art, has only the dated quality of yesteryear's manifesto. But it marked a significant break in art history, ushering in an age in which art is no longer the readily grasped reaffirmation of everyman...
...Power & the Prize. In London, the Ministry of Fuel and Power soberly accepted a petrol-ration application from Fire-Eater Priscilla Birt, deliberated three weeks, granted her a gallon a month after classifying...
...trying to kid with your talk of the self-restraint of the British in the face of petrol rationing? For the past few weeks the breath of every car owner of my acquaintance has reeked of petrol. "Oh, it's only a can in case of emergency; might have to visit the hospital, you know." In the interests of whatever is left of Anglo-American solidarity, I think you should warn any of your countrymen who are proposing to come over here to be very careful where they toss their cigar butts...