Word: star
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...actor, who died in January at 28 of an accidental prescription-drug overdose, is magnificent. Echoing the sly psychopathy and scary singsong voice of Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Ledger!), Ledger carries in him the deranged threat of a punk star like Sid Vicious, whom he supposedly took as one of the models for his character. The Joker observes no rules, pursues no grand scheme; he's the terrorist as improv artist. Evil is his tenor sax, Armageddon his melody. Why, he might blow up a hospital or turn ordinary people into mass murderers to save...
...4chan is also very profane. A phrase from Star Wars comes to mind: It's a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Spammers don't even bother to spam 4chan; Google started searching it only six months ago. But it is the wellspring from which a lot of Internet culture, and hence popular culture, bubbles. In his way, moot is one of the most powerful people...
Israel's Rising Star In his otherwise good report on Israeli leader Tzipi Livni, Tim McGirk states, "She broke with her parents' Zionist views; friends say she'd rather have a peaceful Israel to bequeath to her children" [June 23]. I didn't realize that for Israelis, having nationalistic feelings and a desire to live in peace are mutually exclusive. Robert Isler, FAIR LAWN...
That was then. Over the past couple of weeks, much of the economic news out of Europe has been weak, gloomy or downright terrible. Denmark has officially slipped into recession. Ireland, the star performer of the past decade, has slashed its growth expectations for this year close to zero. Spain has stopped growing. The U.K. is teetering on the edge of recession. And Germany, Europe's biggest economy, is finally showing signs of a marked deterioration. "It's hard to find a country that's keeping its head above water," says Véronique Riches-Flores, chief European economist...
...society. A Bangkok travel agency I use is staffed by kathoeys, and a cashier at my local grocery store is rapidly transitioning toward womanhood. One of the Immigration Department officers who last year helped me renew my work visa had both an Adam's apple and lavish mascara. Kathoeys star on TV soap operas and grace catwalks at fashion shows, while an all-kathoey pop group called the Venus Flytrap plies the airwaves. Notable kathoey athletes include a kickboxing champion, who liked to plant kisses on her vanquished opponents, and a volleyball team dubbed the Iron Ladies that...