Word: retreatism
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Perhaps because Khrushchev has ordered a Communist go-slow in Iraq, in the hope of gains elsewhere, or perhaps because the Communists are not strong enough at the moment to challenge Kassem, Iraq was treated last week to the spectacle of militant Communists in retreat, beating their breasts and confessing their sins in old-style Stalinist selfcriticism. In an emergency session, proclaimed the party newspaper Ittihad al Shaab, the "enlarged" Communist Central Committee had condemned "individual leaders" for their "criminal acts, emotionalism and miscalculation...
Copland's Piano Variations (1930) constitute a landmark in the output of our country's foremost composer. In fact, the work is a milestone in the whole course of 20th-century pianism (some would say "millstone," and it drove two ladies in the front row to a hasty retreat). It is admittedly repellent on first hearing; and I subjected myself to it only in fits of masochism for several years before I began to fathom its great stature. Its granitic, clangorous, uncompromising dissonances take getting used to; but the piece is more than worth the effort...
...this seemingly innocuous sentence from Peking's New China SemiMonthly was the fact that the Chinese word it used for "greatness" is one the Reds usually reserve for Mao Tse-tung. With customary bafflegab. Peking was publicly admitting that Chairman Mao has been forced into a humiliating retreat by the stubbornness of "The Old Hundred Names"-Red China's faceless peasant masses...
...days of Buddha, this annual retreat had a practical purpose: farmers had complained that the master's disciples, wandering the countryside begging for alms, were trampling the newly sprouting rice plants, and the Lord Buddha ordered his priests to keep out of the way until the crop was full grown. As centuries passed, the practice turned into a kind of spiritual excursion that every Buddhist layman tried to enjoy, and eventually entering the temporary priesthood became a matter of course; laborers, businessmen, monarchs (King Phumiphon in 1956) went through the 90-day ritual. "It's like going...
With Mother's Permission. In Thailand, one who longed many years for the chance to be ordained is Highway Supervisor Jerm Tongkhong-on, 38. To Jerm, the 90-day retreat is a normal occurrence, no different from military service, but until this year he could not spare the time. When he was finally ready, he had his wife's blessing, his mother's permission (a monastery entrance requirement) and a leave of absence from his boss, the Thai government. As is customary, his family gave a lavish party, inviting more than 100 well-wishers...