Word: wizard
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...Supreme Court, like the Wizard of Oz, augments its authority by working its magic out of sight. Toiling away in their neoclassical palace, the nine Justices are perceived as being above the fray and primly cut off from everyday life. (Which is why, reportedly, former Washington Redskins fullback John Riggins once accosted Sandra Day O'Connor at a Washington dinner party and urged, "Come on, Sandy baby, loosen up.") But during this case, it became clear that the Justices are not as insulated as we like to believe. Clarence Thomas' wife draws a paycheck from the conservative Heritage Foundation, where...
...film's source: "based on The Odyssey by Homer." While tout Hollywood purloins comic books for its scenarios, Joel and Ethan Coen raid noble antiquity: not just Homer's fabulous travelog in verse but Preston Sturges' "Sullivan's Travels" (for the movie's title) and MGM's "The Wizard of Oz" (for a delirious production number starring the Ku Klux Klan). Toss in enough gorgeous bluegrass music to make the movie's CD a must-have, and you have prime, picaresque entertainment. It celebrates the chicanery of the human spirit, the love of raillery and rodomontade...
...just as I'm immersed in thesis work on postmodern fairy tales and a book called Wicked by Gregory Maguire, I get word that ABC is running the miniseries of the novel in the spring (Demi Moore might play the Wicked Witch of the West in this revisionist Wizard of Oz). Shouldn't I get points for picking hot topics?... A WB press agent gushed, "Tori Spelling is the next Lucille Ball." Where's the Kaopectate?... Blah blah UC presidential candidates blah blah. I'm tired of presidential elections. They're sooooo last month... I keep thinking about the budding...
...second year at wizard school, Harry Potter is warned away from a dangerous book. Whoever opens it will be doomed to read the words over and over, forever. Last week's headlines from Capitol Hill seemed bewitched by the same spell: again and again they promised gridlock and malevolence, possibly forever. But behind the scenes, a group of lawmakers from both parties began conjuring a different endgame. In phone calls, over sandwiches, during chance hallway encounters, moderates from both parties talked about how they might join forces as never before. Improbable as it sounds, the 107th Congress could actually pass...
...book banning - or, more accurately, for attempts to ban books, and if this year is any predictor, the next 10 years won't be any better. The wildly popular "Harry Potter" series sparked myriad complaints; some parents maintain that the books, which follow the path of a young wizard as he learns to use his magic skills, advocate witchcraft. Numerous school districts have considered banning the series from classrooms, but only a few have made good on the threat. According to the American Library Association, more than 5,000 complaints were recorded at school and public libraries over the past...