Word: poisonous
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Writing an operatic Broadway show was considered box-office poison 30 years ago, but Bernstein was up to the task. "Chief problem (is) to tread the fine line between opera and Broadway, between realism and poetry, ballet and 'just dancing,' " noted the composer in his log the year before it opened. In Candide (1956), he had attempted such a synthesis, but that show was crippled by a bitter book that was vulgarized in its later revisions. With West Side Story, however, Bernstein's command of popular idioms, his soaring lyric gifts and technical skills got free rein in a show...
Though much less severe, some symptoms were similar to those experienced by victims of last December's Union Carbide leak in Bhopal, India, which killed at least 1,400. The poison there was methyl isocyanate, which, like mesityl oxide, is used in the production of agricultural chemicals. After Bhopal, Union Carbide closed its Institute, W. Va., plant, where methyl isocyanate was manufactured. Since then it has been revealed that there were 62 minor leaks at Institute starting in January 1980. Local safety officials charge that Union Carbide took almost four hours to acknowledge responsibility for last week's leak...
...fighting in the marshes continued, both sides claimed victory. Iran, saying its forces had killed or wounded at least 700 enemy soldiers, charged ^ that the defending Iraqi troops had again used poison gas; the accusation could not be confirmed independently. (Most authorities agree that Iraqi forces used chemical weapons early last year in an effort to halt an Iranian advance.) Baghdad broadcast TV footage showing hundreds of dead Iranian troops in the battle zone. Even so, the Iranians did not mount the human-wave assault the Iraqis had been expecting for months, possibly because the latest offensive had limited objectives...
...number of street people grows, so does the backlash, raising disturbing questions about hostility to the poor and the use of the homeless as scapegoats. A Fort Lauderdale city commissioner suggested rat poison as a topping for local garbage, then retracted the statement and recommended the use of chlorine bleach instead. In Santa Barbara, Calif., a 35-year-old drifter was found shot to death in December, and a flyer was circulated threatening more violence to the homeless who camp there. Jerry Hill, an Episcopal priest in Dallas, says that people who camp at the outskirts of the city endure...
...Poison Pill. A defense that makes the takeover so expensive that the predator gives up the quest. The target company, for example, might give shareholders securities that could be turned in for cash if the unwanted takeover succeeds...