Word: self
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...fact that some people don't care whether their actions have consistent justification. People do things they can't justify; the doing doesn't substitute for justification. And of course those in charge of E4D would rather have students give to both funds than only to the Senior Gift; self-defeating ideological purity ill serves everyone's interests...
...fundamentally altered daily life throughout the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Though the violence seems to be tapering off, Palestinians are settling into a pattern of sullen resistance. Spurred by orders from the uprising's leadership and restricted by countermeasures from the military authorities, the Palestinians are turning self-reliant to defy Israeli rule. And in just as many ways, Israel is struggling to reassert its control over daily Arab life in the territories...
...Star Nell Carter hip-hopping through Alexander's Ragtime Band, Michael Feinstein singing I Love a Piano, and Garrison Keillor reciting All Alone. But then there were the lows: tinny amplification, an overpowering brass section, Bea Arthur's oomphless Hostess with the Mostes' and Leonard Bernstein's self- indulgent twelve-tone parody of A Russian Lullaby. Bernstein was also notable for ad hoc choreography. In seamless motion during the final bows, he embraced Shirley Maclaine, knelt before Marilyn Horne and lodged himself beside Frank Sinatra. The show is ended -- thank God, Berlin's melodies linger...
...altar of public scandal is a treasured ritual of the American civil religion. And the Helmsleys were already among the least sympathetic of the wealth celebrities coughed up by the Reagan era. He is a landlord: 50,000 apartments, along with other real estate. She is the self-proclaimed "queen" of his hotel chain, famous for being nasty to the help, and a walking exaggeration of every cliche about the second wife as a social type. The obvious diagnosis of what ails the Helmsleys -- greed -- doesn't explain much, either morally or practically. Few of us lack greed...
Joyce's otherwise informative memoir is marred by its self-serving tone, and his credibility is damaged by the dubious reconstruction of quotes, many of which make him sound suspiciously articulate. (Talking about Rather to a colleague: "Jesus, he's become like that ornamental vine from Japan, the kudzu, that was introduced in Georgia a few years ago. Now it's spread its tendrils all over the whole damned South . . .") What is more, Joyce rarely steps back from his day-to-day chronology to offer a larger perspective about TV news or even much useful introspection...