Word: possessives
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...sound odd, but misery needs to be entertaining. Appalling calamities befall some people; yet they manage to make them sound drab and boring. Others possess the gift of making a minor mishap vividly compelling...
...anger. Circled by fury, we are the unfurious; surrounded by passion, we are the dispassionate. Most of us by this time have made a commitment to the kind of country we want to live in, and often that commitment is pursued with all the energy and talent we possess. Still, it is a commitment based on reason; we are appalled, all of us, by the automatic reflexes of those younger or older than we are. Detached, observed always by that invisible third eye, we still find it impossible to deliver ourselves completely to slogans and ideologies. Even our rebels...
...without even the vital publication-date information or a glossy photograph of the author, which definitely increases the chance of a review in smaller papers. Jacket copy can be cretinous. The blurbs from other writers are often elliptical and overblown ("Not since Dostoevsky . . ."), demolishing what credibility they might normally possess. The authors' capsule biographies still tend to suggest that to become a novelist, a boy should first try life as a carpenter, cook, salesman and merchant seaman. Advertising budgets range from minuscule to nonexistent. Many publishers, in fact, will not advertise a first novel at all unless sales justify...
Whales are extraordinary animals. Besides being the largest creatures on this planet, they apparently possess a sense of humor, a reasonably well-developed conversational skill, and an inordinate amount of musical ability. According to an accumulation of scientific findings, they lumber through the oceans bellowing raga-like compositions of extraordinary length and complexity. On the other hand, whale intelligence may leave something to be desired, for they seem about to embark on a career in the music business. Humpback whales have just made a record. And last week whales were performing with the New York Philharmonic in a new work...
Alas, I was never to possess him. He appeared only in my imagination, and when he did not come to the wedding, I thought I would simply perish. Daniel pretended to help me find him, but he was desperately intent on keeping us apart. Finally, in a transport of sorrow, I decided to return to Rome. Ah, but then at the airport I saw the adorable autoball player and followed him to a hotel. When I learned he was not my Gregory after all, my slender dream shattered into a thousand meaningless fragments...