Word: toy
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Since they were first introduced 14 months ago as a kind of executive toy, pocket calculators have amazed their own inventors by appealing to a wide range of consumers, including many whose most pressing known mathematical need is the totaling of bridge scores. Originally marketed mostly by office-equipment firms, the electronic gadgets are now found in countless department stores, photo marts, gift shops and other mass retail outlets. No fewer than 50 U.S. firms have started making mini-calculators, which perform the four standard mathematical functions instantaneously, yet are small enough to fit inside a man's suitcoat...
...remind him of the alleged physical force contaminating the younger generation. When he then looks for spiritual salvation, however, he cannot avoid the concrete realities surrounding him in city streets and hospital corridors. Bends of bearded youths and have krishna dancers with the faces of cheerleaders allow him to toy with the idea of a Second Coming. The end won't come that easily, though, and his struggle to attain grace becomes merely a grasping at identity, an identity that wavers between Europe and America, father, murderer, surgeon and witch doctor...
...were any measure of greatness. Frobenius organs are destined for eternal admiration. The initial visual impression of the case brings in mind Indian River orange crates: the bright unstained wood is painfully stark against the somber interior of the church the separates encased divisions seem to fit together like toy blocks in sterile symmetry. The en Chamade ranks sparkle the new chrome...
...village's recreation center. In the rear of the club, couples in their multicolored sweat suits lounge and embrace in a litter of long, pretzel-like pillows strewn around the floor. The play is also heavy on the center's pinball machines, pool tables, miniature golf course and toy-auto racing course. For the more reflective, there is a "quiet zone" for listening to classical music. Other diversions include a theater for such activities as Bavarian yodeling exhibitions, and outdoor games of chess with pieces so large they have to be carried individually to their positions...
Chess originated as a war game. It is an adult, intellectualized equivalent of the maneuvers enacted by little boys with toy soldiers and has, throughout history, appealed to diverse peoples. It was played by the contemplative Hindus, the holy warriors of Islam, the chivalrous knights who were allowed to visit ladies fair in their boudoirs to play a board, and by the rambunctious sea rovers who had carried the game to Greenland (perhaps even to North America) by the 12th century. Dr. Karl Menninger, an aggressive Freudian analyst, once declared: "It seems to be necessary for some...