Word: railways
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...asked to name his profession, Rowland Emett would probably answer "Fantasticator." No other term could remotely convey the diverse genius of the perky, pink-cheeked Englishman whose pixilations, in cartoon, watercolor and clanking 3-D reality, range from the celebrated Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Railway to the demented thingamabobs that made the 1968 movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang a minuscule classic. It is no wonder that he has been dubbed by admiring Americans the British Rube Goldberg. But that, with all due deference to the late Rube (who was a great admirer of Emett), is to compare Edward Lear...
...glass liqueur-decanter fog lamps, a crystal ball to predict traffic conditions ahead, a petunia-powered antipollution catalyst and a speedometer that registers from Nought, through Gently, to AWFUL. In fact, Emett notes, the machine "has a great safety factor: it doesn't move." His Far Tottering Railway was a hot ticket at the 1951 Festival of Britain at which it transported more than 2 million passengers; it is now the puffing pride of Toronto, installed at the Ontario Science Center. The Gentleman's Flying Machine is powered by a Wandering Hot Air Brazier and "a swarm...
Miller and his production crew prospected for ballads in mountain cabins, railway boxcars and fancy supper clubs. They also unearthed some fascinating old film clips and photographs. The show, however, is not flawless. The absence of any song by George Gershwin is one of several notable omissions. And it seems at least curious that the program's title song uses lyrics written not by an American but by an 18th century English ecclesiastic. Still, Grace generally hums along well-and will set viewers humming...
...Minerals,'" Pogrund says, "that means copper. Kaunda [Kenneth D. Kaunda, the president of Zambia, which shares the same rail line] depends on copper for his survival. The railway through Angola was destroyed during the war; he has to send the copper through South Africa. He may be distressed that his black brothers are being discriminated against, but he'll strike a deal with Vorster...
Bombay. Fernandes soon found the life of an M.P. boring and went back to militant unionism. In May 1974, he masterminded a crippling national railway strike that the government succeeded in breaking only after three weeks of turmoil and thousands of arrests...