Word: possessed
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Edward T. McAvoy, production designer of the 1999 film Office Space, was pondering ways to accessorize that film's geeky character Milton and latched onto a stapler. He wondered, What could I do as a designer to make this stapler special so as to justify Milton's need to possess it and the bosses' need to covet it? He decided to make it fire-engine red. "I called Swingline and said, 'Do you make a red stapler?' and they said no," McAvoy recalls. "And I said, 'Well, do you mind if I use your logo on the side...
...imperious radiance: in childhood, surely, discussing weighty issues with her Brahmin parents; in her Broadway youth; and later, forever, in movies. Hollywood handed her four Oscars for Best Actress (the most any star has won) and eight additional nominations but was confounded by her steely hauteur. Film stars typically possess a glamorous version of the common touch; they are of the earth. Hepburn was apart and above, an aristocrat from some loftier time and code. But she was no standard Great Lady; her emotional intelligence was too prickly. She blew hot and cold in the same breath--her fire...
...article on the band Radiohead and its new album, Hail to the Thief [MUSIC, June 9]. When rock groups record music for the sole purpose of making money, much of the creativity is lost, and it all seems to sound the same. The beauty that music can possess as an art form is missing from most of mainstream pop. But it is wonderful to hear Radiohead's originality and to be moved by the group's talent and artistry. I choose the music I listen to based not on what the musicians look like but on the depth and emotion...
...Pritchett and Anthony Powell have pronounced him nothing less than a "saint." That's a bit much for Hitchens, who prefers to say that Orwell "took some of the supposedly Christian virtues and showed how they could be 'lived' without piety or religious belief." One virtue Orwell did not possess was an ear for good fiction. His early novels creak and groan with messages about the evils of imperialism, capitalism or middle-class respectability. Even Animal Farm and 1984 are memorable more for the power of their ideas than the gracefulness of their prose. Indeed, there are probably dozens...
...while Harvard may possess its share of red tape waiting for Summers’ shears, the University is no government agency. Summers has his superiors, the Harvard Corporation, to please. And he has his subordinates to help him execute his plans. But most of the University’s activities lie outside of this clear hierarchy—and in the hands of the faculty...