Word: vineyard
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...book about evil; the ambition is palpable in the novel's heft. But I suspect it was an intellectual desire, not a visceral one, that it did not spring from a central concern in Styron's life. What kind of evil, after all, do you find on Martha's Vineyard? There are long sections of secondary history, and extensive quotations from people like Hannah Arendt, passages that seem tacked-on, contrived. The characters fail to come to life, being in effect tools of a superimposed authorial purpose. The only realization of evil comes through the author's ventriloquism: "I began...
...rushed to Boston airport to get the 4 p.m. Air New England flight to Martha's Vineyard, a 70-mile, 35-minute trip. But then there was a delay: no equipment. Finally, at about 6 p.m., we got on a plane and joined a long line of other flights waiting to take off. Just as we reached the head of the line, the pilot said he had to refuel. At last, at around 7 p.m., we departed. But later, in midcourse, we veered left toward the Vineyard's neighboring island of Nantucket. Apparently our flight number was switched...
That tale of travel woe is told by Author Vance Packard, one of the many cultural and corporate heavyweights on the New York-Boston axis who have vacation homes on the Vineyard or Nantucket. What they also have in common is a feeling of strained camaraderie and a fund of furiously exasperating stories about Air New England, which links 14 New England stops with Boston and New York City. Says New York Times Columnist Russell Baker, a Nantucket man: "It's an eerie operation. I resign myself to disaster every time I book with them." CBS Anchorman Walter Cronkite...
...airline cannot be blamed for the fog that frequently socks in Nantucket and the Vineyard. But when weather trouble seems likely, passengers are given little cards bearing a macabre and somewhat existential warning: DESTINATION DOUBTFUL. This relieves the airline of any obligation to put people up in a hotel in case, say, a New York-to-Nantucket flight must be diverted to Boston. Columnist Baker recalls one too typical experience. Before buying his ticket in New York City, he asked if there would be a problem with fog at Nantucket. As Baker tells it, "The clerk said no, Nantucket...
When he got back he insisted on a meeting, and that was swiftly arranged. Vance interrupted his vacation on Martha's Vineyard; Brzezinski, about to leave town, delayed his departure. The three gathered in the Situation Room of the White House, along with Mondale, who was asked by Carter to represent him. With some heat, Strauss accused Brzezinski of writing the restrictive language in the sealed instructions, and the National Security Adviser confirmed that he had done so. Strauss bluntly laid out his understanding of his role: he had been placed in an intolerable position, and that could never...