Word: prop
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...Haitian peasants, the native black swine, the so-called cochon planche, has long been a combination bank account, mobile garbage-disposal unit and occasional religious prop. Haitian farmers, among the world's poorest, have relied on the pigs to produce income for medical care, weddings, funerals and education. The long-legged, lean porker was also a helpful consumer of weeds and even human wastes. And of no small importance, hougans (priests) regularly appease their demanding Petro gods with the blood of a black pig, the preferred sacrificial symbol of voodoo...
Much of the money from foreign loans has gone to prop up the value of national currencies, which makes foreign goods cheaper and encourages consumers to go on import-spending sprees. Even though Chile's unemployment rate in 1981 was 35%, the country was a major importer of radios, TV sets, refrigerators and cars. The surge in foreign auto sales has made Santiago one of the world's most polluted capitals. Argentina went on a similar binge starting in the late 1970s, a period known as La Plata Dulce-the sweet money...
...turned out to be a strong taster of the bitter stimuli phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) and propylthiouracil (PROP). The ability or inability to taste these stimuli is genetic. To taste very weak concentrations, as I did, indicates that the subject is probably homozygous, or has two dominant genes for bitter tasting. People who perceive PTC/PROP mildly are likely to be heterozygous, meaning that they have one dominant and one recessive gene. Non-tasters of these bitter stimuli have two recessive genes. It was interesting to notice how the tastes literally "felt" as they were being washed over the tongue. Salt and sweet...
...impact of American investment on the lives of the victims of apartheid is minimal compared to the benefits to the ruling whites and the society they intend to prop up at any cost...
...Pope dropped Reagan off at Air Force One and returned to a runway podium for wa brief liturgy. "He is a | charming person," the "Pontiff later told reporters, "and I am not disagreeable either." But some Vatican officials were irked that the Pope had been used as a political prop. Indeed, a camera crew from the Republican National Committee filmed the encounter, and it will no doubt turn up in television ads aimed at the 26 million Catholic voters...