Word: plumpness
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...child star could escape the Hollywood hothouse and blossom, it would be Jodie Foster. And indeed she considers when she was 18 to 24, "the years I went off to college and had a life." She armored herself in friends, cocooned herself in the anonymity of a newly plump figure, tangled with the deconstructionist teachers in her comp-lit classes at Yale...
...reaction was a reminder that advertising, no less than any other art, bares the psyche of a nation. "Schmaltz is an American idiom," said Moreira. "We're a people who cherish wearing our feelings on our sleeve." Along with wavy fields of grain and golden, hazy images of plump grandparents, another American penchant is for the hard sell: buy because it tastes good, or because it works better...
...people plump up after giving up cigarettes? There are several emotional and behavioral factors, including simply the habit of putting something into one's mouth. But experts increasingly believe physiological factors play the largest role. Nicotine, found in tobacco, speeds up physiological functions, especially the rate at which the body metabolizes food. "Though people will tell you they smoke to relax, in reality, they're all charged up," says psychologist Daniel Kirschenbaum of Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital. A smoker's heart rate, for instance, averages 84 beats a minute, compared with 72 beats for a nonsmoker. When smoking stops...
...Lucas has yet to show real subtlety or depth, he does, in a couple of instances, come upon a pathos deeper than mere appetite, and reveal, beneath the plump lubriciousness, regrets and surprising pleasures. Characters find themselves reproved by expectation, exiles on all fronts. At their best, his stories have the everyday magic of tall tales overheard at the local tea stall. It is no coincidence, perhaps, that the neighbor who runs away with the Irish fireman's wife in one yarn -- to an ashram in Pondicherry, no less -- goes by the name of Scheherazade...
Bennett, eager to enhance his net worth, has a lucrative contract to write two books and a long list of high-paying speaking engagements for business audiences. As a recent incumbent of high federal office, Bennett could face restrictions on activities that might be construed as lobbying. To take plump fees from private industry while enjoying regular access to the Oval Office could easily create the appearance of impropriety. Though the party chairmanship pays $125,000 a year, Bennett said, "I didn't take a vow of poverty...