Word: sideshows
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Zampano is a bully at best. He calls himself an artist, but really he is nothing but a circus sideshow performer. He works by himself, travelling from town to town and breaking iron chains with his chest muscles. Gelsomina rides in the motorcycle's sidecar and keeps house for Zampano. He also trains her to blow a trumpet and give the drum roll which announce his presence on stage. He beats her with a switch and curses at her until she gets it right...
Hammond might be an ogre, twisting genetic research into capitalist exploitation, creating the ultimate carnival sideshow, where the freaks eat the gawkers. That is pretty much how Michael Crichton sketched the old man in the novel Jurassic Park. But the Hammond played by Richard Attenborough in Steven Spielberg's movie version is another fellow altogether; the director calls him "a cross between Walt Disney and Ross Perot." Hammond is certainly a visionary, a fabulous showman, an enthusiast, an emperor of ice cream, a kid with a great new toy. "Top of the line!" he chirps. "Spared no expense...
...conundrum for an Administration that considers foreign affairs a sideshow is that its policies require deeper thought and more salesmanship now that the communist menace has evaporated. Clinton is still looking for an easy grade on international studies: that the U.N. will coalesce around U.S. preferences, that there will be obvious connections between his foreign forays and voters' wallets, that foreign crises won't mess up his watch. But at home ^ and abroad, as Bosnia shows, consensus on hard problems means tough choices and firm leadership. The world expects and wants that from Washington, a legacy Clinton must live...
...haircut hubbub even had a complex sideshow: the disclosure that the Administration had abruptly fired seven longtime employees of the White House travel office, which handles trips for the press. The move should have been a public relations plus -- rooting out shoddy accounting practices and gross mismanagement in an office with large amounts of unaccounted-for cash and noncompetitive contracts...
None of this would have happened without Kelleher, 61, a folksy ex-San Antonio, Texas, lawyer who runs the company like a carnival sideshow. He schmoozes with employees, who know him as "Uncle Herb"; stages weekly parties at corporate headquarters; and encourages such zany antics by his flight attendants as organizing trivia contests, delivering instructions in rap and awarding prizes for the passengers with the largest holes in their socks. The wackiness has a calculated purpose -- to generate a gung-ho spirit that will boost productivity, the key to Southwest's goal of carefully scripted growth...