Word: spock
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When he reached voting age, he marked his first ballot for Republican Calvin Coolidge in 1924. Five decades later, he ran for President himself. But it is what he accomplished in between that made Dr. Benjamin Spock one of the most famous and controversial figures of his century. He single-handedly changed the way parents raise their children. He preached, albeit gently, that what infants need most from their mothers and fathers is love. Babies are not, he argued (against the prevailing wisdom of the times), little savages who must be broken to adult schedules as quickly as possible...
...ubiquitous has Spock's name become that hardly anyone remembers the title of his most famous book, which has sold 50 million copies in 42 languages. In fact, there were two titles. The hardcover edition, published in 1946, was called The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care; the paperback, priced at 25[cents], was The Pocket Book of Baby and Child Care...
...tone of the prose inside was so soothing and personal that anxious parents who consulted it felt as if Spock himself were at their elbows telling them not to worry. "Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do," he advised. He made sly jokes to suggest that strict rules were overrated: "How to fold a cloth diaper depends on the size of the baby and of the diaper...
Books do not always reflect their authors' real-life personalities, but Spock's did. He was as he seemed: modest, funny, empathetic, confident enough in his own knowledge not to be stuffy about it. He was also a most unlikely revolutionary...
...unemotional. However, the contrast between the chilly surface and the confessional nature of many of the lyrics creates a tension, even a passion. The sound of a numb Madonna trying to reconnect to her own emotions has poignancy akin to the Tin Man searching for a heart, or Spock struggling to come to terms with his human half. Orbit says that one song, the coolly funky Swim, was recorded on the day Madonna learned of Gianni Versace's murder: "I think that explains why the track has an emotional resonance to it. It was intense to record...