Word: spartanic
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Russia and China have endless superficial differences and similarities. For instance, one does not find public drunkenness in China-an everyday sight in the Soviet Union. It seems strange to a visitor that the one vice that thrives in a spartan socialist land devoted to physical fitness is addiction to tobacco. Chain-smoking cigarettes seems to be one of the few licit tokens of individual prosperity in China. Stores feature Panda pipe tobacco and three kinds of cigars; the Great Wall brand is favored by Chairman...
...first recorded amnesty was granted by Athens in 403 B.C. to most of those who had collaborated with Athens' Spartan conquerors after the Peloponnesian War. (The word itself is from the Greek amnestia, which means "forgetfulness.") The Romans, on occasion, continued the custom, which they called restitutio in integrum, and many other states since then have granted amnesty to achieve reconciliation after a civil war or a period of internal strife. France, which has seen more such conflict than most countries, has made amnesty almost a habit; the latest example occurred in 1968 when right-wing opponents of Charles...
...like a clean room. This desk is always clean. Of course, if I'm writing a speech, I'm surrounded by a pile of papers as I sit stiffly thinking and concentrating. But whoever is in this office cannot afford to be undisciplined. He must live like a Spartan. You have to save yourself, be at your best, be physically and mentally disciplined to make decisions in a balanced way. I would not think of making a decision by going around the table and then deciding on the basis of how everyone felt. Of course, I like to hear everyone...
...Gerstenberg found a job in 1932 as a timekeeper at the company's Frigidaire division in Dayton. Ever since, he has followed the first two parts of his father's advice to a tee-and totally disregarded the third. A devout believer in G.M.'s spartan work ethic, he became assistant comptroller at 39 and cont'nued to rise...
...aftermath of the explosion of a Spartan warhead a mile below the surface of Amchitka Island, the world's environmentalists waited anxiously for the postoperative reports on what was surely one of the greatest shocks man had ever inflicted on his supportive earth. There were no earthquakes, no tidal waves. To date, it has been a case of no news being good news...