Word: reptilian
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...grandfather can rest easy now. His grandson is not only making a living, thank you, he has also become a star?indeed, a supernova of sorts?in the scientific firmament. Sagan's books, ranging from speculations about life beyond the earth (The Cosmic Connection) to ruminations about the reptilian ancestry of the human brain (The Dragons of Eden) have sold millions of copies and have been translated into a dozen languages. His lectures, on campus as well as off, attract overflow crowds. He is at home on late-night TV bantering with Johnny Carson about heavenly bodies, both human...
David Margolin as the notary and Beline's lover is wonderful. He uses his uncanny resemblance to Marty Feldman to make big money with the audience as he and Beline paw each other under Argan's nose. Stacia Zabusky's Beline is sleazy to the point of being reptilian and is very effective...
...acting, as in all miniseries, is wildly uneven. Except for Robert Vaughn's reptilian Haldeman/Ehrlichman and John Houseman's phlegmatic John Mitchell, all of the President's self-serving men are bland. The many familiar TV actresses in the cast are interchangeable, and so are the canned romantic subplots in which they appear. The series would have been smart to leave at least most of Washington's bedroom doors closed...
...human brain, he points out, evolved from the brain of the reptile, one of whose species the Bible holds responsible for the Fall. According to Sagan, the reptilian brain, which forms the most primitive part of the human brain, still influences man's behavior and may help explain one of his oldest fears - the apparently inherent squeamishness about snakes. "When we feared the dragons," inquires the astronomer, "were we fearing a part of ourselves...
Dabney attacked Vidal mainly for his characterization of Washington as variously having a "cold, serpent's nature," casting a "serpent's glance" and employing "serpentine cunning." No major historian or biographer of Washington has ever before found any such reptilian element in Washington's personality, Dabney contended...