Word: vain
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Columbus had not discovered the new route to the Indies, said the courtier, someone else would inevitably have done so. Columbus asked for an egg and then challenged all the guests to make it stand on end. They passed the egg from hand to hand, some trying in vain to make it stand, some arguing that it could not be done. When the egg reached Columbus, he tapped one end on the table, pressed it slightly flat, and so made it stand. Very easy, once the problem has been solved...
...light of the widespread ignorance about human rights issues both among the general population and among the supposedly informed Harvard community. While some simply pretend that problems do not exist, others claim that, because of the extent of the problem, any act they take would be in vain. Yet many fail to realize that by failing to take action on the issue, they all but condone the human rights violations occuring around them...
...imagination with the technique and logic of the commedia dell'arte, Italy's native improvisational comedy. The third Gozzi production directed this year by Andrei Serban. The King Stag is a fairy tale set in the oriental kingdom of Serendippo where the good king Deramo is looking in vain for a worthy wife. His trusted but treacherous minister. Tartaglia, tries to insinuate his own daughter, Clarice, into the king's affections to distract the king from the beautiful Angela whom Tartaglia wants for himself. At the same time, the magician Duandarte, who long ago taught King Deramo the secret...
...first man to undergo a heart transplant operation in New England died Sunday afternoon after his Harvard doctors tried in vain to find him a third heart...
...faced the press at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California to provide the epitaph for the dark-haired infant known as Baby Fae. "Today we grieve the loss of this patient's life," said the 41-year-old heart surgeon. That life, he insisted, had not been in vain. "Infants with heart disease yet to be born will some day soon have the opportunity to live, thanks to the courage of this infant and her parents. We are remarkably encouraged by what we have learned from Baby Fae." So ended an extraordinary experiment that had captured the attention...