Word: spartanism
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...court, Sirica lives a relatively spartan existence. He regularly rises at 5 a.m. or even earlier (having gone to bed about 10 p.m.), avidly reads newspapers and newsmagazines ("I have a great respect for columnists-everybody from James Kilpatrick to Carl Rowan -they're all solid Americans") and arrives well prepared for his day's work after predawn study. A mediocre golfer who is pleased when he breaks 100, Sirica has wavy black hair, an erect bearing, and a healthy complexion that makes him appear some 15 years younger than his 69. The Siricas have three children: Jack...
...would be mailed a card entitling him or her to buy a month's supply of ration coupons, most likely at a bank or post office. Price: $1 per packet, to defray the $1.4 billion annual cost of the program. The basic ration would be a rather spartan 32 to 35 gallons a month, enough to permit only about 100 miles of driving a week in the average American...
...most promising change has taken place in Chile's economy, which Allende left a shambles. After the coup, General Gustavo Leigh Buzman, chief of the air force and a junta member, prescribed a spartan program of "work, work, work." It has helped. The copper industry, which accounts for 80% of Chile's foreign earnings, had been nationalized, poorly managed, and so riven with strikes that production plummeted. But under the junta copper production rose to 61,000 tons during October, compared with a monthly average of under 50,000 tons during Allende's last months in office...
Visible Targets. If the Arabs persist in their embargo, the emergency will bite Americans deeply in a month or so. Old routines in work and play will be disrupted, traveling will become a chore and the novelty of spartan indoor temperatures and reduced lighting will wear thin. Then the public will probably begin a search for scapegoats. The Administration will be high on everyone's list for its failure to foresee and prepare for the crisis. Oil companies will be another target of criticism, because they are so visible and profitable, and calls will rise for increased Government regulation...
Does it also mean an end to what the world acknowledges as the good life? Does it imply the blankness and aridity of a new spartan state? Hardly. Even the alarmists have not called for a return to Puritan self-denial. America, even under the most severe pressure, remains a singularly capacious land. Its ability to provide its population with necessities - and even luxuries - is unique. But it cannot retain that capacity without a more realistic society of consumers - a society that accepts its new responsibility to curb its habits; recognizing that the good life is not based on quantity...