Word: rafters
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...this is seasoned with raucous gag lines, rafter-raising gospel and R&B songs, an inspirational Christian message (Shirley, on her deathbed and surrounded by the family, sings to her last breath - then reappears as a white-robed angel ascending to Heaven to finish the song) and the alternately jokey and hectoring presence of Madea. She is the irresistible center of gravity, dispensing both specific advice ("You've been tricked!" she tells the guy with the pushy fiancée. "Tricked by drug dealers! Get a job!") and all-purpose bromides ("If you think good things, good things...
...pretty sharp movies. Back then, children, Hollywood was actually interested in reflecting contemporary society, and this poster child for urban dystopia provided the perfect setting. A raft of films - Serpico, Death Wish, Dog Day Afternoon, Taxi Driver - navigated that stinky Styx with the expertise of a champion white-water rafter. A lesser but still pertinent entry was The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, which starred Robert Shaw as the criminal mastermind and Walter Matthau as the transit detective trying to talk him out of it. Among its many attractions, this was an action movie where the tension is conveyed...
...window and door—hellish orifices in neat rows. The entire roof of the great hall was a liquid pool of red and yellow. On and on it burned. Within her, another fire lapped ravenously, unforgivingly against the inner walls of her being, threatening to consume her. A rafter fell with an explosion, and Roxanna lifted her hands to shield her face. But then she stilled, staring down with horror at her once ethereally white hands. They were black with soot...
...pulverized brick - slow the ball and reward long, grinding rallies of attrition. The medium-paced hard courts of the Australia and U.S. Opens provide a neutral surface for a variety of styles. But grass has the most profound influence on style of play. In 2001, Goran Ivanisevic beat Pat Rafter in a Wimbledon final that featured 38 service aces; both players favored the fast-court tactic of heading to the net to volley. A year later, however, Australian baseline specialist Lleyton Hewitt defeated Argentinian David Nalbandian in a match that featured only seven aces and not a single such serve...
Ivanisevic and Rafter were able to blast their way through the new grass because an exceptionally rainy two weeks had kept the courts soft. But the ground eventually dried, and baseliners have excelled since; in men's tennis, Roger Federer, who serves and volleys only around 10% of the time, has reigned supreme. And while women have always been more inclined to play from the back of the court, big-hitting groundstrokers such as Maria Sharapova and Serena and Venus Williams have all but shut the door on the serve-and-volley style ushered in by the now-retired Martina...