Word: pound
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Israelis last week got a new currency with a very old name. The shekel, originally a weight used by Jews in biblical times to measure gold and silver, replaced the pound, which has depreciated rapidly because of the country's 111% annual rate of inflation. The monetary rate of exchange: ten old pounds for one shekel, which is worth 25 U.S. cents...
Chaos is likely to continue for a while. For one thing, the old pounds will continue in circulation for three more months. For another, the new currency is almost indistinguishable from the old. Israelis riding the underground cable car in Haifa immediately took advantage of the similarities. They discovered that the new 1-agora coin (one-hundredth of a shekel) fit into a turnstile slot designed to take 6-pound tokens. They happily rode the cable car at one-sixtieth of the former cost until authorities changed the size of the slot...
...Winter is icummen in," Ezra Pound wrote. "Lhude sing God-damn." And he bemoaned the season: "Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us." Exhorted Pound: "Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM...
...Hormuz, through which practically all of the Persian Gulf oil flows to the West. While two or three burning oil tankers in the waterway would be a fiery spectacle for American television viewer, it would not be a pretty sight for Western policymakers. Although many American hearts would pound at the sight of our boys jumping off helicopters onto the Arabian sands, emotions don't light homes...
...bullion. In London uniformed guards admit long lines of sellers one or two at a time into the precincts of Johnson Matthey & Co., metal dealers, while tough-looking street traders sidle up to impatient standees. "Are you sellin', luv?" coos one, whipping out brass scales and rolls of pound notes. On Manhattan's West 47th Street signs blossom in jewelers' windows: "We pay the highest. Don't settle for less. Come...