Word: self
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...something wholly untrue--that the possession of weapons gives them stature, makes them more American. This idea too was a Colt-manufactured myth, indeed, an ad slogan: "God may have made men, but Samuel Colt made them equal." The notion of guns as instruments of equality ought to seem self-evidently crazy, but for a long time Hollywood--and thus we all--lived by it. Cultural historian Richard Slotkin of Wesleyan University debunks it forever in a recent essay, "Equalizer: The Cult of the Colt." "If we as individuals have to depend on our guns as equalizers," says Slotkin, "then...
...gentle and somehow calming, and not suspecting anything, you went back the next morning. After several sessions, you were offered the book written by their "master," Li Hongzhi. It was about self-control and Buddhist enlightenment, written in a chatty style that was not hard to understand, and it cost only $2. The group would read and discuss parts of it after the exercises, so you bought a copy. What you didn't know was that you were being watched--that you and millions like you were already caught in the net of China's biggest internal security operation since...
What's cool about Mystery Men is that it is what it's about. Expected to underachieve in a season of teen-boy farces, it triumphs by being its smart, shambling self, though it takes a while to get there. In the opening scene, director Kinka Usher tries to get a Tim Burton flavor of dark comic hipness and blows it; he is flailing even as Mr. Furious does at first. Usher feels his way to the right tempo and tone, and when he finds it he doesn...
Sometimes that self-knowledge is visible only from atop the junk heap of good intentions. "Now the deed is done, and the smoke has cleared/ From the ashes some glimmer of the truth appears," Richey sings in the lustrously plaintive Didn't I. Then, in the song's chorus, all objectivity evaporates--"I did the best I could/ Didn't I? Didn't I? Didn't I?"--and by repeating the question, she makes it both an accusation and a child's plea. The song is a jeweled showcase for a shattered psyche...
...have not completed what kayakers call a "smooth self-rescue." But I have survived just fine. I have even managed to hold on to my paddle. My partner, accomplished adventure racer Steve Hilts, who politely pretends that I am of some use, flips over the kayak, and I try to pull myself back over and into the boat. Yet even this seems impossible. Then I forget how I am supposed to get back inside the boat. Various people shout advice at me from other kayaks: "Settle your butt in first, then pull your legs in." The boat is full...