Word: sternly
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...Gary Stern talks like somebody stuck a quarter in him, which is appropriate since he's the last manufacturer of commercial pinball machines in the world. But don't make the mistake of calling him that. "We say only," he explains. "We don't like to say last because it sounds like maybe we're not gonna be around. We are. Pinball is an American icon. It has to survive. We need to continue to have pinball...
...monologue barely makes a splash in the sea of bells, buzzers and whistles at the annual trade show of the amusement-machine business, which covers everything from video arcade games to kiddie rides and coin-operated pool tables. But Stern is an ardent voice of optimism in a field that has not been all fun and games lately. Hurt by growing competition for the entertainment dollar, revenues for the industry have flattened: $6 billion in 2001, an uptick from $5.8 billion the year before but off from $7.1 billion in 1991, according to trade journal Vending Times. Arcade games took...
This is the sort of atmosphere in which a retro enthusiast like Stern might seem to thrive. But it's not easy to uphold the pinball tradition in a video-game world. A decade ago, a thriving pinball company could ship 5,000 to 10,000 machines a year; this year, Stern Pinball is shipping "significantly less." Still, says Stern, "it's been a growing year. We're very happy with it. There's room for one company." His biggest hit this year was a new machine called Roller Coaster Tycoon, though the fact that it is based...
...Mecca that stood out from the other boats plying the waters off southern Bangladesh. Portworkers and fishermen noted the same squat deckhouse and plump hold that for centuries have sheltered fishermen from the cyclones of the Bay of Bengal. The Mecca had the usual rusted rigging and smoke-blackened stern. And the crew too was like most others working off Chittagong: pure Rohingyas?stocky Muslim refugees from western Burma. Only the thick salt marks high on the Mecca's bow hinted that it was ending a voyage longer than most fishing trips. But this was Chittagong, South Asia's premier...
...granted TIME the only closed-door, office interview he has sat for since the shootings began. He would not talk specifics, or for that matter even generalities, about the investigation, and spoke about himself with both reluctance - out of respect for the legions toiling under him - and a stern, powerful reticence...