Word: wordplays
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...immense knowledge of history, culture and art not to answer questions about 19th- and 20th-century American culture, but to raise them. Not only does he address existing puzzles—he creates enigmas out of events that seem commonplace. Only Trachtenberg’s obvious delight in wordplay and vivid language rescue what could have easily become an impenetrable maze of historical references and theories.Again and again, Trachtenberg returns to analyzing how people perceive one another and their world. Trachtenberg is at his best when drawing the reader’s attention to the significance of some otherwise-overlooked...
...hype and drama that attended the speculation about Barack Obama's 2008 presidential bid, his actual announcement was rather tepid. There was no Oprah performance filled with wordplay on "audacity" and "hope," no tension-filled live broadcast, no Monday Night Football gag, just the oddly flat, open-collared video announcement; perhaps he's already trying to tamp expectations downward, after so many weeks in the hype machine. The substance of his announcement leaves little doubt that he's sincerely interested in running, and the polls suggest that even if the YouTube clip was a little disappointing, he benefits from people...
...WORDPLAY...
...Burns sees the New York Times crossword puzzle as "a set of boxes in which you practice the wordplay of this particularly exquisite language." Bill Clinton solves his Times crosswords as he would a political problem: "You start with what you know the answer to, and you just build on it." Jon Stewart begins a Tuesday puzzle with such confidence, "I'm gonna do it in glue stick...
...Wordplay should prove "a feline bite (6)" - catnip - to the millions of crossword addicts, and to lots of others who enjoy a tough game played with smarts and heart. For me, the movie and its milieu induced a little ache of nostalgia. For a decade or so I solved the Times crossword every day. Then, in 1981, I discovered Sondheim's book of cryptics, and the devious, luxuriant word play had me hooked. Now I search them out in Harper's, The Nation, The Atlantic (where they have been demoted to appearing only online - shame!), Games and the book collections...