Word: thrall
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...remember a time when she was not scuffling with boys to be first in line. When she devoured books on ancient Egypt, her father was gratified. But movies also held her in thrall. Paglia's love affair with popular culture, which forms the forthcoming second volume of Personae, was already blossoming when she was a child. "Egypt and Hollywood were equivalent phenomena to me, equally rich and fabulous," she says. Her father demurred. "He lectured me on Voltaire's disapproval of actors," Camille recalls, "and this was the time when I was making my collection of 599 Elizabeth Taylor pictures...
VISIONARIES ARE POSsessed creatures, men and women in the thrall of belief so powerful that they ignore all else -- even reason -- to ensure that reality catches up with their dreams. The vision may be the glory-driven daring of a Saddam Hussein, who foolishly tried to extend his rule by conquest and plunder, or the seize-the-day bravery of a Boris Yeltsin, who struggled to free a society from seven decades of iron ideology. But always behind the action is an idea, a passionate sense of what is eternal in human nature and % also of what is coming...
...Hoover never trusted anyone he didn't have something on," an aide once said. In the end, Gentry argues, Hoover became prisoner of the confidential files he had amassed to keep others in thrall. Harry Truman and John Kennedy had wanted to fire Hoover, but pressure on the director to step down reached a peak during the Nixon era. Fearful that his enemies might succeed, Hoover began going through the confidential folders to determine which ones might prove damaging if they fell into the wrong hands. He had barely reached the letter c when he gave up the task...
Though the business is increasingly global, the domestic entertainment industry is still the backbone, and it is still thriving. The enormous profits of the '80s are being reduced by the recession. But the amount of time and money the average postadolescent American spends in the thrall of entertainment remains astounding: 40 hours and $30 a week, if industry statistics are to be believed. By the time U.S. culture goes overseas, it has been tried, tested and usually proved successful at home...
...twelve-year limit might increase influence peddling rather than reduce it, claim the naysayers. To ensure rewarding employment once their terms expire, members of Congress would remain in thrall to the interests that already control them. Maybe so. Yet the Executive Branch has successfully limited the revolving-door syndrome. Restricting postcongressional work in a similar fashion would not be impossible...