Word: somberness
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...Vancouver Olympics could not have started on a more somber note. On Feb. 12, a fateful Friday that broke the hearts of those who strongly believe in, or genuinely scoff at, the so-called Olympic ideal - faster, higher, stronger - Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a horrific crash during a training run. The opening ceremonies, held later that evening, were tainted. Fingers were pointed. It was a tragedy that will forever question the intelligence of selling outrageous risk as global sport...
After a year of mostly grim tidings from Afghanistan and Pakistan, Obama could have been allowed a moment of satisfaction. But McChrystal's recounting of the Helmand chieftain's warning ensured that the mood in the White House's Situation Room during the conference call was somber. According to National Security Adviser Jim Jones, who was there, Obama added an exhortation of his own, using the idioms of counterinsurgency warfare. "Do not clear and hold what you are not willing to build and transfer," he told McChrystal, a maxim he had repeated often over the previous months. "You've heard...
...mission, "to wipe out from the lands of prophets and religions all threats and evils of war, so that peace can prevail in the land of peace." My father is lecturing at Cairo University. In our apartment we tack up posters bought in the bazaar: drawings of a somber Sadat, wreathed by doves. Our Sadat posters last longer than Sadat does: two years later, he's dead, shot by extremists angered at his peace talks with Israel...
...Rode Me Down,” follow in the title track’s motley footsteps. Sharp winds and crashes of a thunderstorm give way to flamenco guitar strumming and maracas, mixing with the quirky tinkle of a glockenspiel, hand claps and a spirited jazz flute. The somber growling of a cello intimates the lyrics Staples croons (“She rode me like a storm / Like a soaking brooding storm”), while the clear, brassy peals of the horn section end the track on a vigorous note. It’s easy to ignore the significant compositional skill...
...disaster in Vancouver felt uniquely awful, for two reasons. First, its occurrence just hours before the opening ceremony created a somber and painful situation: A man had just lost his life preparing for a multibillion-dollar sporting spectacle, yet participants were obliged to sing, dance and play their fiddles in celebration of it. Let the games begin! Second, while the Beijing murder was a terrible tragedy, it was a random act of violence. On Friday, an athlete was killed pursuing what Olympic officials sell as the epitome of purity: Go faster, go higher...