Word: shrug
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When I visited Iran a few years ago, my favorite question was, "Who runs this country?" The response often was nervous laughter, followed by a raised eyebrow, a shrug and a stage whisper: "The dark forces." My next question-"The dark forces?"-would elicit the weaving of my interlocutor's own fabulously intricate conspiracy theory. "It's very Persian," a young businessman told me. "We're very conspiracy-minded." So let's indulge ourselves and think like Persians about recent events in the Middle East. Here's my conspiracy theory: It starts with the fact that no one really does...
...smiles innocently. At 22, he looks barely 16. A couple of cars pass. The drivers and passengers stare as if we were roadside freaks. And I guess, as a couple of hitchhikers these days, we are. Driving the third car, a lone 30-year-old laughs and apologetically shrugs, mouthing, “I’m sorry, I can’t.” Can’t of course because she’s a sensible person. We understand completely, feel guilty for putting her on the spot, and nod in thanks for her laughter...
...help: a senior teacher is going (as an individual, not officially) to Kaiyo to advise during its inaugural year. It has even been criticized for pandering to Japan's upper echelon of students. Eton's critics used to talk like that. After 566 years Kaiyo will be able to shrug...
...assurances as any other vulnerable minority, and that your money will stay in the bank or be given to some other worthy cause until those assurances are made. Write to Harvard and say you love this school and its history, but that you would love it more could it shrug off the legacy of neglect for others that colors its actions. Write Harvard and ask that it begin to feel some real sense of responsibility for its actions—on campus, in Cambridge and the nation, and around the world...
...mall without a second thought about participation. The much-hyped youth vote never materialized in 2004. The war in Iraq provided another opportunity. But there was no draft, nor hundreds of Harvard students trying to enlist. We did not protest in large numbers. Rather there was a collective shrug...