Word: romane
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This bluff and vigorous Ford film, based on the Edwin O'Connor roman à clef about four-time Boston Mayor James Curley, winks at the chicanery involved in getting into office and staying there. Spencer Tracy, right, is Frank Skeffington, on his final run for a job he believes is his by divine right. Doing favors, making deals, smiting enemiesto Frank, that's just politics. Has anything changed in 50 years? The big-city machine the film elegizes may be gone, but the malady lingers...
...quite-immaculate Conception" [Oct. 16]: The headline for the report on actress Keisha Castle-Hughes' pregnancy confused the Immaculate Conception with the virgin birth of Jesus. Roman Catholic dogma teaches that Mary was conceived without original sin and therefore didn't need to be baptized...
That singular Roman dialect known as Vaticanese can sometimes turn so vague as to be incomprehensible. But on Friday, when French Cardinal Paul Poupard presented the Vatican's annual message for the end of Ramadan, there was no doubt about what was meant by the "particular circumstances" that had heightened interest in what is usually a boilerplate goodwill missive. Five weeks since Pope Benedict XVI's speech in Germany about faith, reason and violence provoked a backlash among some Muslims, the wheels of Vatican diplomacy are still working overtime to "placate the souls," as Benedict himself...
...Sciences courses show up in the Courses of Instruction, though the idea was approved by small subcommittees almost two years ago. Indecision persists and the crisis at the core remains. In view of our cyclical short-term history, maybe we should go further back. In times of crisis, the Roman senate possessed an admirable means of securing both continuity and decisive action. The powerful and populous Senate (think the Faculty of Arts and Sciences) would let consuls (think Core Committee) elect a dictator (think successful administrator) with a specific agenda (think Core reform) and a rigid timetable. Paradoxically, in order...
...Benedict XVI is not just an academician anymore but the political figurehead of the Roman Catholic Church. He made quite a clumsy statement at a time when the tension between civilizations is growing. I disagree with any attempt to draw a line between Islam and Christianity by trying to prove that the former is more "irrational" than the latter. Christianity's violent past shows that such a claim can't be justified. Andriy Sukhodub Dundee, Scotland...