Word: strains
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...COULD the author of The Andromeda Strain and Dealing write something like Five Patients? After all, Five Patients is supposed to be a serious expose of hospital mismanagement, AMA intransigence, and technological innovations in medicine, isn't it? Actually, author-doctor Michael Crichton has performed no mysterious feat- Patients is just as conversational and dramatic as his other novels; it is written for the ignorant layman and contains just enough intelligent information to fool the reader into thinking that the compelling mystery he is reading is a technical account of hospital life...
...faith in the day-to-day goodness of human nature. At the same time, they assumed that their children would automatically develop the driving will to endure the tough, pragmatic grind usually required for worldly success. The contradiction, as a great many parents and children learn, can cause great strain. "The basic orientation in my family," Livingston Taylor remembers, "was that simply because you were a Taylor, you could and should be able to accomplish anything...
Worse than this, though, is the strain of trying to form a coherent and meaningful plot out of the events. Cassavetes tries to express tension between his characters, but it is a tension they obviously do not feel. The improvisational style does not allow premeditated animosity. It is far better suited to the enthusiastic camaraderie with which the film began...
...quake renewed controversy over building codes in California. Until 13 years ago, no structure over 13 stories high was permitted in Los Angeles because of the earthquake danger. Since then, buildings as high as 43 stories have been erected-and they all withstood the strain last week. There were new warnings from some scientists, however, that skyscrapers should not be allowed. Mostly it was older buildings that suffered heavy damage (including the oldest residence in Los Angeles, the downtown Avila Adobe, which had withstood quakes for 150 years). A further worry was the fact that 20 schools suffered severe structural...
...Furthermore, the sliver of land west of the fault, which includes Los Angeles, tends to move inexorably to the northwest, at a molasses-like average pace of an inch or so a year. Slow as that movement is, friction between the land masses causes them to stick together, and strains gradually build up. When the accumulating strain finally reaches the breaking point, the pent-up energy is suddenly released and results in violent shifting of land...