Word: tobacco
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Sadat enjoyed the comforts and perquisites of his rank, but hardly to excess. Apart from a weakness for fine English suits and imported Dunhill pipe tobacco, his tastes and habits were simple. He usually ate only one light meal each day. A devout Muslim, he never drank wine or liquor. He liked to spend quiet evenings at home watching private movie screenings, usually of American westerns...
There is no shortage of villains in the piece. Big landlords and insurance brokers are the prime employers of arsonists, and even the tobacco industry has its own accidental influence: thanks in part to chemicals added for long burning, cigarettes left on bedding, armchairs and sofas start smoldering fires that kill more than 2,000 Americans each year...
...committee's version was even more generous. But the united front usually exhibited by farm-state legislators, in which each protects the others' commodities, showed signs of weakness. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Jesse Helms of North Carolina had his staff draw up a bill that mainly protected tobacco and peanuts, important products of his state. Senator Robert Dole of Kansas quietly worked on his own version, eventually adopted by the committee, which doubled Reagan's proposed subsidies for wheat and corn. Reagan further fractured farm unity by promising Southern Democrats, whose votes he needed for his economic...
Sugar and tobacco interests fared better. After three years of doing fine without Government subsidy, sugar will now be supported at 180 per Ib. for no good reason other than the clout that sugar interests wield. But the Senate did cut back on the increase in grain target prices recommended by the agriculture committee and farm lobbyists. The committee bill would provide subsidies when wheat prices fall below $4.10 per bu. The full Senate lowered that target...
...rules for escaping jury duty are equally diverse. Courts generally exempt doctors and lawyers and those who can demonstrate hardship. But tobacco farmers are exempted during harvest time in Virginia; South Carolina still excuses "apothecaries"; Indiana excuses ferryboat operators. For those who must serve, the first thing to learn is to wait. "It's waiting for the judge, waiting for the lawyers, waiting to be called. It's not amusing or fun; it's just a duty," says Gwen Pritchard, a Washington lobbyist, standing in the hallway of the District of Columbia courthouse...