Word: sword
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Nominal Bastion. Vatican officials like to think of the continent civilized by cross and sword as a bastion of Christianity. It is something less than that. Although 90% of Latin America is nominally Catholic, probably fewer than 10% of the people practice what the church preaches. Thousands turn out for such semireligious spectaculars as Lima's festival honoring Our Lord of the Miracles, but grandmothers and schoolchildren are often about the only worshipers at Sunday Mass in the ancient, silent churches. In Brazil, perhaps 25 million people are devotees of a voodoo cult called macumba. Across the continent...
...fail at the moment of trial by committing wholesale slaughter. In a striking change from his other roles for the Festival, Charles Cioffi gives Ferrovius a low, gruff voice and makes him a quick-tempered powerhouse, an ogre. Later, when he returns from the arena brandishing a bloody sword, he makes a wonderful effect not by howling, "Cut off this right hand," but by whispering it in self-horror. The director has undercut one of Shaw's points by having Ferrovius toss a coin to the Roman Centurion rather than to the prescribed old beggar...
Armado (Josef Sommer), the handsome and bombastic Spaniard, is funny when he swings his sword about with disregard for anything in its way, and just as funny when--saying, "Rust, rapier"--he kisses and resheathes it. Costard (William Hickey), his rival for the affections of Jaquenetta, wears red sneakers, striped pants, and an orange jacket with slogan buttons on the front and "Make Love Not War" embroidered on the back. When Dull drags him off, he yells, "Police brutality!"; and, soon after, he calls Armado a "Fascist Hindu!" Jaquenetta herself (Zoe Kamitses) turns out to be a yellow-stockinged blonde...
Wide Swath, by Sword Dancer-Waddle
Such veiled threats can prove to be a two-edged sword. They can maintain interest in the campaign at a high pitch, but they are also likely to infuriate enough Congressmen to wreck all chances of achieving significant legislative gains...