Word: signal
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...does have is Ron Cuccia, one of the most exciting players the Crimson has had in years, who was a legendary high-school qb in Los Angeles, but who has played mostly wide receiver in college. Will Restic risk the diminutive (5-ft., 8-in.) speedster as a signal-caller or tap one of his untested charges? Regardless. Harvard will be strong at running back, led by bruising fullback Jim Callinan. The defense, except for a superb secondary, is nexperienced...
...drama beneath the surface of folk tales. As Psychologist Bruno Bettelheim made clear in The Uses of Enchantment, most protagonists in fairy tales are passive because the children who listen to them feel at the mercy of events and want to be reassured. Beauty or handsomeness is a routine signal to the child of moral worth...
...work or play, everybody emits wordless signals of infinite variety. Overt, like a warm smile. Spontaneous, like a raised eyebrow. Involuntary, like leaning away from a salesperson to resist a deal. Says Julius Fast in Body Language: "We rub our noses for puzzlement. We clasp our arms to isolate ourselves or to protect ourselves. We shrug our shoulders for indifference." Baseball pitchers often dust back a batter with a close ball that is not intended to hit but only to signal a warning claim of dominance. The twitchings of young children too long in adult company are merely involuntary signals...
Nothing but the daily news is necessary to show the reliance that rulers and nations place upon nonverbal communication. Presidents soon learn that they can hardly do anything that is not taken to be a signal of some sort to somebody. So it is, too, with the governments under them. In March President Reagan, questioned about lifting the post-Afghanistan embargo on grain sales to the U.S.S.R., told reporters that he did not see how he could do it "without sending the wrong signal" -which is exactly what critics accused him of when he did kill the embargo the next...
...bloody history of the world ought to be the first item of evidence in any case against relying on wordless signaling in international affairs. The opportunities for misunderstanding are immense and constant. Says Harvard Law Professor Roger Fisher, a specialist in international negotiations: "The chances of properly understanding signals in the midst of conflict is always very slight." For instance, during the Iran hostage negotiations, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, intending to signal the belief that U.S.-Iran problems could be resolved, spoke of restoring "normal" diplomatic relations. Iran mistakenly took that to mean a return to things as they...