Word: twists
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Only a remarkable twist, like the birth of Palestine, distinguishes one explosion from another in Beirut. For the past seven years the city has known the unremitting violence of the Palestinians, Phalangists, Syrians and Israelis; the high period was a full-scale civil war in 1975-76, which blotted out up to 60,000 lives, roughly the same number that the U.S. lost during 14 years in Viet Nam. For the past few years destruction has been confined to Israeli reprisals against the P.L.O.; sporadic clashes of the Syrians, Phalangists and Palestinians; and the ordinary run of street bombings...
...NABOKOV THE NOVELIST has a special affinity with Gogol. They are both obsessed with words, with the curious and beautiful poetic possibilities of their languages. They both love a story for its own sake; they shy away from messages and morals. They twist the literary conventions. Above all, they challenge the imagination. Nabokov treats Gogol lovingly; it makes for a delightful and intelligent opening chapter...
Regretably, most other books this season don't deserve more than a cursory glance. With any of three books, you can divine the answer to the Rubik's cube puzzle; the people who twist the multi-colored square for hours every day can now spend more time reading about it. You Can Do The Cube, by a 12-year-old British whiz-kid who probably has no friends, is the most popular...
...playing like a television soap opera, with each day seeming to bring a new twist, a fresh revelation. The drama starring National Security Adviser Richard Allen is dragging into its fourth week, and the fact that it lasted so long without fading away was becoming its most important feature. Nothing has been proved. Nothing has been disproved. But a whiff of impropriety hangs in the air. That troublesome scent was enough to force Allen out, at least temporarily: on Sunday Allen announced he was taking an "administrative leave" from his job, effective immediately, for the duration of the Justice Department...
...overwhelmed) by the intelligence of its morality. And it is the presence of this latter quality that finally distinguishes it. It is not a blanket condemnation of investigative reporting. It simply says that unspeakable people can use the conventions of unnamed sources and unattributed quotes for ulterior motives, can twist them to make the journalist who thinks he is serving the public good actually serve private (or governmental) ends that are no good. Perhaps most important of all, the picture reminds us that many public actions are motivated by innocent private needs that may only look suspicious, which people...