Word: venusized
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Since Russia achieved the same space feat last February by sending a satellite toward Venus from a similar parking orbit around the earth, U.S. missilemen, still trying to pinpoint last week's Ranger failure, looked for consolation in the near success. At least Ranger's complex instruments were behaving perfectly, and the Atlas-Agena combination had got off to a beautiful start...
...Greeks gave human qualities to the planets. Mars, the red planet, was considered male, and the Greek word for Mars, Thouros, was abbreviated to "Th," or α. In the hands of careless and hasty penmen, this symbol eventually degenerated into δ. The same shorthand fate overtook the female planet, Venus, whose Greek name Phosphorus was reduced to Ph (Φ) and subsequently-perhaps by the same careless Grecians-to ø. When medieval alchemists came upon these symbols, they found them useful: δ (Mars) was associated with hard iron, φ (Venus) with softer copper. Later, the symbols were adopted by Swedish Naturalist...
...between the two camps moves John Masters, who from 1934 to 1947 was a professional soldier of a particularly proud breed-an officer in the Indian army. Since then, he has become a professional writer with seven novels about India to his credit (Bhowani Junction, Nightrunners of Bengal, The Venus of Konpara). In his autobiographical The Road Past Mandalay, Masters uses his novelist's insight and his soldier's knowledge to write an absorbing, sharply distinctive story of World War II as fought in the East...
...Dalis and Thomas in Parsifal or of radiant Spanish Soprano Victoria de Los Angeles in Tannhäuser. But her engagement received far more than its share of attention after the Wagner brothers were bombarded with letters suggesting that the assignment of a Negro to the role of Venus was a "cultural crime" against the obvious wishes of Wagner himself. Wieland remained unmoved: "I shall bring in black, yellow and brown artists if I feel them appropriate for productions. I require no ideal Nordic specimens...
What Wagner did require was an "elemental, erotic quality," and he found it in Mezzo Soprano Bumbry's voice, a naturally glorious, bronzelike instrument that ranged through the house with impressive power. But because Wieland's concept of the staging allowed Venus about as much movement as a mummy, premiere audiences could not judge whether Bumbry's acting was a match for her singing. As for the new production itself, it was typically spare in detail but marred by the intrusion of a few Radio City Music Hall touches: an angelic choir whose halos gradually became brighter...