Word: toyed
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Married, J.B. Priestley's satire of the Yorkshire bourgeoisie circa 1908. The premise: three long-married couples discover that their wedlock may not be legal and suddenly are able to reconsider, with the wisdom of hindsight, the choices of youth. Two browbeaten wives and one henpecked husband toy with ditching their spouses, a notion that is faintly feminist for its time. Fittingly, the best performances come from Fredi Olster and Joy Carlin as the resentful wives and the delightful Ruth Kobart as a domineering dragon. Randall Duk Kim has wit and charm as Kobart's newly disobedient husband...
...those Atlantic City gambling casinos, notably Trump Plaza and Trump's Castle. It is not true that Trump owns India's Taj Mahal, but he does own Atlantic City's version, which will be three times the size of the puny original. Trump acquired this toy after much bargaining with TV entertainer Merv Griffin over the purchase of troubled Resorts International, which ended with Trump's getting the unfinished Taj Mahal and Griffin's getting everything else. This will make Trump the biggest dealer in Las Vegas East. (Estimated operating profits this year: $100 million...
...Vegas, he ends up believing his brother would be better off with him than in the asylum, and fighting, on principle, for custody. Yet Hoffman's meticulously observed performance makes it clear that Ray's is truly a hopeless case. Yes, he could become a kind of living pull toy for his brother, flapping and clacking in his wake. Yes, they could continue playing what they have played in this film: a comedy of frustration that has its bleakly funny moments. But a cure, restoration to full human function? That...
...Teaching toys also sell every year because of those pillars of the toy store, the grandparents. If a toy is well made and useful, the grandparents will find it -- in many cases, because they played with it themselves. Crayola crayons debuted in 1903, Lincoln Logs in 1916. "Today grandparents have more time to spend with and on grandchildren than ever before," says Harris. "They are more likely to buy educational and developmental toys, and least likely to be reactive to fad items...
...merits of classic toys -- their durability, their simplicity and their imaginative appeal -- the greatest strength may lie not in the child's reaction to them but in the parents'. As mothers and fathers grow ever busier and more pressed for time, they frequently resort to toys that do the parenting for them: the bears that tell bedtime stories, the plastic heroes who teach virtue. For many children, a toy whose nostalgic appeal and sheer pleasure lure parents back into the playroom may be the best present...