Word: skillfulness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...fierce sense of identification with the heroes of the sport. At Darlington, when Waltrip edged out Petty, the spectators cheered so loudly that the drivers could hear them over the roar of the engines. For the final laps the fans were on their feet, screaming with appreciation at the skill and daring of the men who have so mastered the fundamental art of driving the American automobile...
...Lewis could get away with gross reliance on unalloyed religious faith because he also possessed an H.G. Wellsian flair for description of other worlds. Lewis never lost sight of the individuality of his characters, nor the need to entertain his readers. Bloom misses both Lewis's faith and his skill...
...valve. But human fallibility apparently was the more alarming shortcoming of what happened at Three Mile Island. Once the original on-site mistakes had been made, the blame spread to the NRC itself. Commission officials privately admit that they were slow to get an emergency crew with the necessary skill and authority to the scene of the disaster. Had the right men been there at the right time, three days before they finally did show up, they might have limited the damage and certainly would have reduced the meltdown risk. Astonishingly, in the age of the atom and travel...
...about the only plot outrageous enough-and that is precisely what a band of Russian dissidents sets out to do in David Lippincott's Salt Mine (Viking; 333 pages; $10.95). Led by the mysterious Alyosha Gregarin and funded by the World Jewish Alliance, amateurs of every faith and skill capture the Kremlin's Oruzheinaya Palata, taking hostage some 50 tourists and the sacred corpse of Lenin. Author Lippincott, who admits to having had "some intelligence connections," knows his Moscow and the schizoid style of its new aristocracy, the Politburocrats...
...closing days of the regime, Libya was busy supplying Amin's troops with fuel and small arms. Libyan army instructors also tried frantically to improve both the skill and morale of units still loyal to Amin. The reasons for Libyan support are not clear, though it may be that Gaddafi wanted to support a fellow Muslim in order to preserve an Islamic "belt" running from Libya through Chad (where Libyan-supported guerrillas now control the government), Uganda and Somalia. Gaddafi's involvement, however, carries wider implications for Africa. Libyan planes in support of Amin used Nairobi International Airport...