Word: sheerly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...reason is not so much the sheer numbers, though 40,000 babies die of starvation each day in Third World countries, but the reckless way in which humanity has treated its planetary host. Like the evil genies that flew from Pandora's box, technological advances have provided the means of upsetting nature's equilibrium, that intricate set of biological, physical and chemical interactions that make up the web of life. Starting at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, smokestacks have disgorged noxious gases into the atmosphere, factories have dumped toxic wastes into rivers and streams, automobiles have guzzled irreplaceable fossil...
DICTIONARY OF THE KHAZARS: A LEXICON NOVEL by Milorad Paviac (Knopf; $19.95). A wacky, totally fabricated reference book, translated from the original Serbo-Croatian, about a people who vanished eight or so centuries ago. Sheer oddity contributes to the eerie entertainment...
...Sheer numbers do not measure such intangible factors as morale, combat readiness, training and leadership -- in all of which experts generally give NATO an edge. On the other hand, geography lends the Soviets a huge advantage. Whatever personnel and armaments Gorbachev withdraws from Europe could readily be returned in a time of crisis. Weinberger even contended that demobilization of Soviet troops is easily reversible: "In the Soviet Union you can turn a soldier into a peasant and back again in rapid order, without public opinion, parliament or editorial back talk...
...them but in the parents'. As mothers and fathers grow ever busier and more pressed for time, they frequently resort to toys that do the parenting for them: the bears that tell bedtime stories, the plastic heroes who teach virtue. For many children, a toy whose nostalgic appeal and sheer pleasure lure parents back into the playroom may be the best present...
...hostile game, HARRY GRAY, 69, the taciturn former chairman of United Technologies, who heads his own investment firm. The First Boston group is offering a highly complex package of cash, securities and stock warrants, which is still only a hazy proposal rather than a firm bid. The sheer size of First Boston's bid persuaded RJR's board to give the group until Nov. 29 to make the offer more concrete. If successful, the high-rolling group would probably keep RJR's tobacco business and sell its food groups to such consumer-product companies as Ralston Purina and Procter & Gamble...