Word: sphinx
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...Chekhov's last words: "Let's have some champagne!"), even as his own journey takes on a mythico-literary cast. Erofeev is Sheherezade, avoiding one thousand and one train fares by telling obscene stories to chief Ticket Inspector Semyonych. He is Oedipus, parrying the ribald riddles of a drunken Sphinx. He is Dante descending through the Moscow circles of Hell, his Virgil a bottle of Stolychnaya. And in the tragic denouement, Erofeev becomes Christ on Golgotha, crying out in anguish "Why, oh Lord, did you forsake...
...Egyptian president, like the Sphinx before him, remains enigmatic. Caught between the embarrassment of inaction during the Lebanese crisis and his endorsement of Camp David, Mubarak now clearly believes that close association with the United States is more a liability than an asset in helping reestablish Egyptian influence among the Arab nations. But whether he will risk all and gamble beyond just an exchange of ambassadors with Moscow is hard to say. Sadat had the strength of character and the nearly megalomaniacal confidence to reverse his country's course almost overnight: Mubarak, an unglamorously disciplined ex-air force officer...
...couple behaved like typical tourists, gliding down the Nile, clicking away at the Sphinx, even striking a matching pose in front of a pharaonic frieze at Luxor. Except, of course, that typical tourists do not have the Nile searched for explosives beforehand; neither do they lunch with Jehan Sadat, widow of Anwar, nor get together with President Hosni Mubarak. Visiting Egypt on a swing through the Middle East, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were reminded often of the 1978 Camp David accords. Strolling through a Cairo bazaar, he was greeted with shouts of "Welcome, Mr. Peace Man!" Mused Carter: "I could...
...nails. Henry will accidentally impale himself on a hypodermic needle. Hawkeye will wonder at the insanity of it all, and wonder too whether he is part of the problem or the solution. And Sherman Potter, who has seen it all before in other wars, will grimace like the Sphinx and let the vinegar flow all the way home...
Much has been made of Ben Kingsley's acting as Gandhi, and he certainly deserves a great deal of praise for his portrayal of the sphinx-like reticence and overwhelming humility of the Mahatma. He also utters Gandhi's gospel-like sayings with enough gravity to mean something and enough reserve to keep them from sinking. Kingsley, however, is limited in what he can do with the role, for Gandhi's relationships with others are uniformly simple. His holiness, in effect, restricts him to a single dimension...