Word: spins
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...private-eye hero Spenser embarked on studiedly medieval quests to rescue damsels in distress. Some fans admired the chivalric plots and illuminated prose; others, finding these adventures merely portentous, longed for a return to the snarly, wisecracking style of Parker's earlier books and the ABC-TV series spin-off, Spenser...
...Soviet Union agree on some things. Among them: the need to prevent a radical change in the regional balance of power that would follow an Iranian victory over Iraq, and the need to prevent a war between Syria and Israel. Both fear that such a war could spin out of control, engulfing not only the protagonists but also their superpower protectors. If the Soviets are able to persuade the world community that its presence in the region can help forestall that calamity, the U.S. will have difficulty chasing the Russian Bear away...
These frenzied efforts at spin control seem ludicrous seven months before the Iowa caucuses. But politics craves winners and losers, regardless of evidence. That explains the headlines generated by a debate focus group of 87 Iowa Democrats conducted by Hickman-Maslin, a Democratic polling firm unaffiliated with any presidential campaign. Their verdict: Dukakis, Gephardt and Simon gained ground, while Babbitt lost long yardage. Of course, such a tiny and far from representative sample is hardly conclusive. But in the game of momentum this Iowa focus group may turn out to have more political weight than its statistical worth...
...novel's highly charged atmosphere turns these scrap items into relics. Blind Cahill literally feels his way to the truth about his son. Joel's former instructor breaks regulations and takes him for a dangerous spin that conveys the elemental and unnatural sensation of flight. Cahill also discovers that the lost flyer was the leader of a trainee cult known as Alnilam, named after the central star in the constellation Orion, the hunter. Eventually Joel is revealed as an incipient fascist, a "cool-headed demon," an arrogant manipulator of symbols and, reminiscent of the pseudoscientific romanticism of Nazi Germany...
...judge from Brecht's track record, putting spin on a familiar story was one of the surer ways of accomplishing this. Even when Brecht was ripping off no one in particular, he felt the need to cloak his work with the patina of plagiarism. According to Brecht's doctrine of the epic play, setting works in an unfamiliar and unsympathetic context allows the audience to absorb the message of the works rather than getting absorbed in the character and stories. If Andrei Serban's seminew production of Brecht's The Good Woman of Setzuan shows anything, it's that...