Word: toying
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...Every day now at the Guangzhou train station, just a few miles away from Wang's office, hundreds of migrant workers wait to start the long journey back to their home provinces. They have been laid off from jobs working in toy and textile factories, and from construction sites throughout what used to be a booming province. Among them is Zhang Dingli, 36, who worked in a toy factory for a decade. But in early November, the plant closed. He is a victim of an economic transition - a move away from the low-end, low-wage, export-oriented manufacturing...
...education officials toy with the formula on the local level and clamor for large-scale policy changes, it’s important that top politicians lead by example. President-elect Obama’s popularity and political position put him and his wife in a unique position, which carries with it an obligation to support public education personally...
...husband invented the iconic spring toy, but Betty James, who died Nov. 20 at 90, gave the Slinky its name and hand wrapped the first ones on her kitchen table. She also developed the renowned and catchy jingle--"What walks downstairs alone or in pairs/ And makes a slinkity sound?/ A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing/ Ev'ryone knows it's Slinky!"--which launched hundreds of millions of Slinkys down staircases worldwide...
...while working as a mechanical engineer in Philadelphia, Richard James saw a torsion spring fall off his desk and tumble end over end across the floor. "I think I can make a toy out of this," he later said. Two years afterward, all 400 of the toy's first run sold in 90 minutes--launching the Slinky craze...
...Richard dramatically abandoned both business and family to join a religious cult in Bolivia, leaving Betty behind with six kids and a floundering business. For the next 38 years, Betty carefully ran the company, finally selling it off when she reached 80. She was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame...