Word: self
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...star of last year's other showstopper was Yasser Arafat. His performance in the theater of self-transformation was more drawn out, and the applause more restrained. Gorbachev's act was tough to follow in more ways than one. The idea of meaningful change is easier to accept when it comes from someone with a relatively fresh face and a reputation for boldness and candor. Decades of familiarity with Arafat's role as both Jekyll and Hyde have bred if not contempt then at least deep suspicion. The effect of Arafat's trademarks -- the kaffiyeh, the pseudo uniform, the cultivated...
...recent diplomatic progress between the Arabs and the U.S., however welcome, could still end up being a sideshow to the tragedy of the principals passing in the night. As the P.L.O.'s leaders are becoming less rejectionist, Israel's are becoming more so. Israel may be undergoing a self-transformation of the wrong kind...
...trying to be too different. Thicke of the Night attempted an offbeat mix of comedy and talk but misfired badly. Rivers brought a more abrasive edge and some attempts at wacky stunts to the format but failed to catch on. Only Late Night with David Letterman, with its hip, self-parodying pose, has succeeded in cutting a new path. Letterman's influence will be evident in both shows: each, for example, plans to take the camera outside the studio occasionally. But mostly the newcomers are following the old-fashioned approach: a band, a couch and an easygoing, plain-folks appeal...
...help a child who needed her. She is not running for office, not running charity balls and not running away. Perhaps she seems a rare heroine at an end of a decade when the rich got greedier, the poor got needier, and everyone else tended to his own shiny self-interest...
...sure, there are also plenty of self-serving reasons to serve: glamour seeking, resume padding and networking. "There is usually an opening in your life when you decide to volunteer," says Core Trowbridge, 26, volunteer coordinator for TreePeople in Los Angeles. "Young people come here, treating this as a singles' scene. Old people who've retired but not run out of energy come." But when researchers inquire further into motives, the most common reason cited is a desire to do something useful. To comfort a child, succor a patient, rescue a school or salvage a neighborhood gives volunteers a sense...