Word: sustain
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When the Iran-contra scandal broke, Ronald Reagan, behaving as besieged politicians invariably do, said that "this whole thing boils down to a great irresponsibility on the part of the press." The accusation was false and desperate, and he has not tried to sustain it. Not the American press but an obscure Beirut magazine serving an Iranian faction broke the story of selling U.S. arms to Iran. (The Los Angeles Times was also onto it but feared that first publication might jeopardize the release of hostages.) As for Oliver North, his shadowy activities with the contras have been noted sporadically...
...clock on a Thursday evening, the members of the choir are seated in folding chairs in their rehearsal room at Christ and Holy Trinity Church, Westport, Conn. Bruce Barber, choir director, stoops at the piano with one foot on the sustain pedal and his eyes on his singers. He is leading them through a 300-year-old hymn, and he is not happy...
...Iraq has been waging a slow-paced defensive struggle, relying on its air force to strike at Iranian targets. In the process, Iranian oil production has been reduced over the past year from 1.6 million bbl. a day to less than l million bbl., the minimum thought necessary to sustain Tehran's war effort. President Saddam Hussein, who invaded Iran in September 1980 out of fear that Khomeini's fundamentalist Shi'ite revolution would spread to Iraq, where the Shi'as constitute more than half the population, has little choice but to fight on as best...
...band of Spanish explorers comes upon a California valley where grapes are plentiful. "The grape is good. It will sustain us," proclaims the No. 1 conquistador, ordering the group to put down roots right there. But wait: here come two more men with a load of grapes from the next valley over. The comandante takes a taste, then spits them out with a grimace. "You call these grapes?" he cries. "They taste like Fresno...
...parody from the real goods. Fresno tries to toss stink bombs at a genre that is probably impervious to anything short of nuclear annihilation. What's more, it does so in a format virtually unheard of on TV: a comedy mini-series. No multiparter has ever managed to sustain laughs for five consecutive nights. On purpose anyway...