Word: sightlessly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...idiot savant has a long tradition in the U.S., much of it as victim. A typical 19th century savant, Tom Bethune was sightless and barely able to grunt monosyllables. But he had the ability to play complicated classical piano pieces by ear, and promoters exhibited him in vaudeville as an amusing freak. Since that time, savants -- retarded and autistic people who have inexplicable gifts, usually in art, mathematics and music -- have been the objects of diversion and exploitation. But at a unique institution called Hope University in Anaheim, Calif., they are being trained to reveal their surprising gifts and develop...
...year is young, but it is unlikely that any title in 1987 will top this one for mystification and intrigue. Fair enough: its subjects are the oddest achievers in the history of show business. Here is Blind Tom, born to slave parents in 1849. Sightless and retarded, this exemplary idiot savant could play most pieces on the piano, classical or popular, after a single hearing. Here is Harry Kahne, who could write five words on a blackboard simultaneously, holding chalk in his feet, hands and mouth. Here is Matthew Buchinger, who was a marksman, conjurer, artist and musician. Not exactly...
Even if the frail Balaguer wins, he is unlikely to offer Dominicans much of a fresh start. Virtually sightless, he hardly allayed voters' doubts, when he assured them on TV, "My problem, really, is I cannot read." The veteran politician has also been sharply criticized for human rights abuses during his presidency between...
...100th anniversary in show business. The soap opera continues with Bridget and Georgie O'Donnell (Alice Krige and Judi Bowker), a pair of sisters who flee Ireland when Bridget is implicated in a political kidnaping. She marries a doctor who works on Ellis Island, while her sightless sister forges a career, improbably, as a writer of silent-movie westerns...
...bats, which will evolve into forms specially adapted to exploit each of the islands' food sources. One group could well develop into an aquatic species capable of using its winged forelimbs for swimming. Another could, in the absence of competition, turn into the carnivorous night stalker, a flightless sightless bat, with ears as sensitive as a NORAD radar antenna, that carries its clawlike hind legs over its shoulders as it roams around on its forelegs screeching, in search of prey...