Word: tropes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...would be unfair to reveal Fiona's secret, except to say it puts a potent twist on that standard fairy-tale trope about the transformative powers of love and provides a neat switch on all those Snow White-Sleeping Beauty legends. But let's not stress morals and messages. Let's stress the sheer, cheeky fun of this movie. And the fact that Shrek, like Chicken Run a year ago, enchantingly expands animation's palette and possibilities...
...President. So when the George W. Bush character says to a prisoner he's about to execute, "Hey scum, ready to die by lethal injection? Maybe you'd prefer the gas chamber," and then farts in his face, you have to understand that they're actually deconstructing a sitcom trope. If anything, Mr. President, Trey Parker and Matt Stone think this is going to be a big boost to your image. "We wanted to take George Bush, who is somewhat vilified, and make him likeable," explains Stone. "To us, that's way more subversive than making him look like...
...that they were "optimistic about ultimately prevailing" in Monday's hearing. David Boies assured reporters he expected prompt and fair action from the Supreme Court, and that the Bush team had "a very heavy burden" in the case. (He's even begun borrowing Baker's "rules of the game" trope.) He also mused that Dec. 12 was a rather softer deadline than the bulk of the Florida legislature was making...
...made him an all-purpose bogeyman for political establishmentarians everywhere. Other funding will come from foundations and individual donors across a narrow span of the political spectrum, from the center to the center left. "Transcending the old categories of left and right," after all, is a favorite rhetorical trope of liberals who are tired of being dismissed in a political culture that makes "moderation" the pre-eminent virtue. Ideological taxonomists will find the lineup of shadow convention speakers--from Jesse Jackson to Paul Wellstone--eerily predictable and not particularly transcendent. All that's missing is a candlelight vigil...
...starkly? "Behind every great fortune there is a crime," said Balzac. Behind every great nation too. Jefferson certainly wanted to do justice to the Indians. But he knew the white man needed to instill fear in the Indian or the American experiment would fail. How characteristically Jefferson: an offhanded trope that sublimely captures the central tension of all foreign policy--that between morality and necessity, power and principle...