Word: tantalus
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...last decade of his life, Paul Cézanne experienced, perhaps more fully than any great artist since Michelangelo, the anxiety of Tantalus. The more he painted, the more he saw. The more he saw, the more manifold and unattainable truth became. "I must tell you," Cézanne wrote to his son six weeks before his death in the fall of 1906, "that as a painter I am becoming more clear-sighted before nature, but with me the realization of my sensations is always painful. I cannot attain the intensity that is unfolded before my senses...
...Such a tantalus of riches required special handling, and the consortium sought the services of Bailey. Initially skeptical, Bailey requested that he be permitted to visit the site. Although he received tacit permission from the Government, the group refused to allow it, fearing that when they sought to lead him there, they might be arrested. In an effort to solve such problems, Bailey had called John Mitchell in mid-March. Mitchell first referred the matter to then White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, who was "nonresponsive." Mitchell next suggested that Bailey "try the White House...
Obtaining a genuine peace in Indochina remains a Tantalus-like frustration, visible but just beyond reach. That was apparent last week as Henry Kissinger and North Viet Nam's Le Due Tho met again in Paris to seek a way of implementing last January's moribund peace agreement...
...Good show, Holmes," said I, reaching for the tantalus and the gasogene...