Word: precious
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...precious stone looks better in a ring than on a balance sheet
...idea behind the project, Denes says, was to devise "an intrusion of the country into the metropolis, the world's richest real estate. To grow a wheatfield on it, seemingly such a waste of precious space, is to create a powerful paradox: the congestion of the city of competence, sophistication and crime against the open fields and unspoiled farm lands...
...geometries and statistics and characters and lore of the game. In his autocratic passion, Steinbrenner, alas, exaggerates the worst traits of modern baseball: its crassness and faithlessness and shallow nastiness. He will not collaborate in the illusion, a form of American mysticism, really, that is baseball's most precious accomplishment. George is a regular walking sermon on the pointlessness of everything once the joy has vanished...
...from their capital, Mexico-Tenoch-titlán, site of present-day Mexico City, their soldiers waged war with the efficiency of Roman legions. Decked in feathery plumage to simulate serpents and other fearsome creatures, they terrorized their neighbors, bringing back captives and exacting tribute of food, blankets, precious metals and cacao beans (for use as money). In a bloody annual ritual known as the Raising of Banners, they appeased their chief deity Huitzilopochtli, the war god, by killing their prisoners as well as slaves especially purchased for sacrifice by Aztec merchants. In one recorded debauch, some 20,000 victims...
Smith covered the big games, races and fights, but it seldom mattered who won or lost. What counted was the sights and smells, the cadences of conversation, the laughter of old friends. Precious anecdotes were salted away and used again years later. This ability to call up the past gave his columns a resonance that has grown rare in daily journalism. To be sure, some of the 300-odd pieces gathered in these two volumes should have been left in yesterday's newspaper. But most are timeless, literate and witty enough to appeal to readers who do not know...