Word: preying
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...democracy, which are gained neither by birth nor strictly by merit but by effective persuasion and show. We never do know who they are. They hint at the underside of the self-made man and self-reliance, the freedom to become whatever others will believe. As they prey on others, they illustrate not what energy and diligence but what spunk and audacity wiE do in a protean society. The jack of all trades becomes the shape-shifting diddler, a reminder of how many occupations can be made to turn on the evasion of work. The cultural promise that...
...known as Cap the Knife for his budget-cutting zeal in the Nixon and Ford Administrations, Caspar Weinberger, 64, has pressed with equal relish for whopping increases in the military budget. This has led to a dichotomy in his performance as Secretary of Defense: detractors say he has fallen prey to the Pentagon's shopping-list mentality and has been uncreative in setting strategic priorities; supporters say he is faithfully carrying out Reagan's policy of rearming America. Both sides are right...
Sally Field prances through the movie in high heels and custom-tailored suits, more concerned with keeping her hair in place than covering all the bases on a story. Her strained toughness-she addresses her "prey" as Gallagher even after her interest in him becomes more than professional--clashes oddly with her naivete, evidenced every time she puts her pert nose to a hot tip. As she stands in her high-tech kitchen blinking longingly at Gallagher, we may believe many things about her. That she is a newspaper reporter is, unfortunately, not one of them...
...mammal. Weighing in at an average of 10 Ibs., the cat has a uniquely flexible backbone. When dropped from a height of less than one foot in an upside-down position, it will land on its paws in an incredible 1.8 sec. Its whiskers transmit complex information about its prey and surroundings to nerve bundles beneath the skin. According to one parapsychologist, the cat may even harbor a trace of E.S.P. A feline named Pooh, for example, who wandered off before the owners moved some 200 miles from Newnan, Ga., to a small town near Spartanburg, S.C., turned...
...highly evolved predators in the natural world, is capable of dispatching a dozen mice at a brief sitting. Alarmingly, it tends to dawdle before administering the coup de grâce. Behavioralists believe this happens because cats are programmed by a primitive, vestigial stalking mechanism. Cats toy with their prey because they may be teaching kittens to hunt or may be exhibiting their prowess; instinctively cats do not always relate killing with the need to eat. When they finally do away with a mouse, it is with Darwinian perfection. The cat's teeth are so arranged as to sever...