Word: quirke
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...people would have pegged Marie-Laure Picat as a likely heroine. The portly, plain-looking 37-year-old lived quietly in a village in central France, shunned attention, and said her only real quirk was an adoration of the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants. But on Aug. 10, when it was revealed that Picat had died the previous day, most of France spared a thought - and shed a tear - for the mother who spent what she knew would be the last year of her life fighting to guarantee that her four children would remain together once she had gone...
...Can’t Smile Without You” as a metaphor for Jessica and Marcus’s relationship. But bringing in a Vegas-bound tour group of elderly Manilow fans and having them stay at the same hotel as Jessica and Marcus is a quirk in the story that strays close to too convenient to ring true.Suspension of disbelief at his repeated appearances aside, the choice of Barry Manilow as a motif works toward the ongoing theme of Jessica at once decrying and embracing the maudlin. Just as she tries to take herself seriously, she?...
...Additionally, we maintain that horizontal floors in place of vertical entryways would make an important design improvement. Vertical entryways are an idiosyncratic quirk of our housing design that have outlived their usefulness in fostering social unity. While vertical entryways may be a characteristic feature of Harvard’s dorms, they should be scrapped in favor of more conventional horizontal hallways, which provide better opportunities for socializing among neighbors. It seems counterintuitive that the Planning Committee is investing in better social spaces within the Houses while neglecting the deleterious social effects of the space within which students spend a majority...
...patients who don't take their meds, grownups who have unsafe sex, and other flawed decision makers have chronicled the irrationality of Homo sapiens. Some of our foibles are quite specific, like overvaluing things we have, overeating food in larger containers and overestimating the probability of improbable events - the quirk that made the Meet Barack Obama fundraising lottery such a smart idea. But in general, we're ignorant, shortsighted and biased toward the status quo. We're not as smart as Larry Summers. We procrastinate. Our impulsive ids overwhelm our logical superegos. We plan to lose weight...
...rest, held a morning press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a grizzled political veteran and the first of Obama's hosts during his weeklong international tour. The press conference and a host of bilateral meetings and other gatherings have all been arranged for April Fools' Day - a quirk of scheduling imposed by the decision to hold a meeting of the G-20 on April 2, the only slot ahead of a two-day NATO summit, which the U.S. and other European leaders will also attend. But amid talk of a growing rift between continental Europeans on one side...