Word: wisdoms
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...decades, few challenged the wisdom of separating risky underwriting activities from federally insured bank savings deposits. But by the 1970s the financial world had become more muddled. Merrill Lynch, for example, began to offer money-market accounts with a check-writing feature. As the lines between banks and brokers blurred, Glass-Steagall came under repeated attack, starting in the 1980s. "I spent a lot of time lobbying Congress to convince them that we needed to look beyond the parochial interests of banks, brokerages, insurance companies and mutual funds," says former AmEx boss Robinson, now investing in tech start...
...most intimate and embarrassing details of your life. The man with your former body may now have a bum knee, but he won't know why (that misguided dive you took playing touch football to impress your girlfriend in 1971). Summing up his own theoretical musings about the wisdom of a brain swap, Tufts University philosopher Daniel Dennett concluded that it was not an even exchange. "It was clear that my current body and I could part company, but not likely that I could be separated from my brain," he wrote. "The rule of thumb [is] that in a brain...
...doesn't repair itself. Why's that? "The brain is not plastic," says Snyder. "It doesn't make new cells. You are born with more brain cells than you need, and you lose them progressively and get dumber and dumber as you get older--or so went the conventional wisdom...
...suppose if wisdom and serenity accompanied the extra years we'd gain by self-denial, it might be worthwhile. But old age does not always bring with it sagacity and peacefulness (see Strom Thurmond). To the contrary, the so-called golden years are just an opportunity for drugmakers, insurance companies and medical facilities to take turns mugging our elders, like so many bullies stealing lunch money...
...When Kugel does pay close attention to the text, however, the results are exciting. In what is by far the most satisfying chapter in the book, "Solomon's Riddles," Kugel elucidates the hidden meanings of several Hebrew "mashals," two-part proverbial sentences that provided the "basic building blocks of wisdom" for the Israelites. In any mashal, Kugel asks, "What is the relationship between A and B?" A puzzling proverb requires thoughtful contemplation before its meaning becomes clear. Take Proverb 26:23, for example: "Like thick glaze on a cheap pot, ardent lips and an evil heart." "The thick glaze...