Word: strains
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...different letters for similar sounds ("shoe" and "nation"), the "Initial Teaching Alphabet" adds 18 made-up letters to the regular 26 so that all sounds can be spelled identically. Example: "too bee, or not too bee: that is the kwestion." Children later switch to conventional spelling with little apparent strain. Still other systems concentrate on the 80% of English words that are phonetically regular. To teach letter sounds, they use goof-proof sentences like "I ran. The man ran. Dan ran." Despite the resemblance to deadly Dick and Jane, the authors claim that such repetitions build remarkable phonic clarity...
Some of the faults afflict The Andromeda Strain, a bigger, better-league movie. Micheal Crichton's novel posed the conumdrum: What would happen if a space-probe satellite returned to earth carrying a malignant? The solution it offered was disquieting. The film is a faithful replica complete with deux ex machinations...
Bateriologist (Arthur Hill), biologist (Kate Reid), surgeon (James Olson) and pathologist (David Wayne) are assigned to the microscopic object which consumes plastic and turns blood to powder. One American has already been annihilated; now the Andromeda strain seems bent on total destruction. The Thing multiplies by some unknown process. At great-too great-length, the brains decide to nuke it to death. But wait! They suddenly realize their folly. Split atoms are what make the Thing thrive. It eats them for breakfast. The countdown begins. Can the stalwart defuse the bomb in time? The clock eats up seconds...
...bill can pass as long as Mills, the most influential man on Capitol Hill, is opposed to it. It is equally difficult to envision how the U.S. can evolve any coherent trade policy while Nixon and Mills remain locked in their classic confrontation. A prolonged deadlock threatens to further strain relations between Washington and Tokyo, and to fan protectionist sentiment, which has been rising alarmingly among U.S. businessmen and unionists. To bring the situation under control, Nixon, Mills -and free-trading U.S. businessmen -must rethink their positions and seek some new initiatives...
Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan (first released in 1965) is a series of four short films that attempt to redeem the supernatural, to reverse the trend toward the merely real or the merely outlandish. Kobayashi doesn't strain toward the fantastic, challenging technology with science fiction. Instead, he looks for the unexplainable within the ordinary, adapting his stories from Japanese folk tales. Though products of a complex cultural tradition, the films are not in the least culture-bound; if anything, they are distinguished by the simplicity of their conception. Like pornography and war, ghosts-when given half a chance-have...