Word: backdrop
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...formal start of his second year in office, and as he stood before the assembled leaders of the three branches of Government in the freshly carpeted chamber of the House of Representatives, flanked by TelePrompTers and with a huge American flag as a backdrop, Jimmy Carter was a President with a heap of problems-and a rare opportunity. After a disappointing first year, his ability to inspire the nation was in doubt, and his popularity was continuing to slide in the polls. The ABC-Harris poll placed his approval at 41%; a CBS-New York Times survey gave...
...terrorist problem especially torments Germans because of the history that haunts them, and because of their sensitivity about their image in the rest of the world. German history-always the dark backdrop when terrorism is discussed-has periodically involved a volatile mixture of romanticism and brutality. Jillian Becker, author of a flamboyant history of the radical Baader-Meinhof gang, calls the terrorists "Hitler's children." Others fear that their violence will coax fascism up from the rubble where it was buried 30 years ago. After the dramatic German rescue of hijacked Lufthansa passengers at Mogadishu two months...
Paradoxically, all this is happening against a backdrop of a generally healthy U.S. economy and a continuing rise in corporate profits and dividends. So depressed is Wall Street's mood that news reports-of, say, a sharp rise in a company's profits-that would have pushed a stock up sharply a few years ago now cause only a brief flurry of a point or two. On the other hand, bad news is no news at all. Hardly anyone paid attention in October when the Dow Jones transportation average sank to a point that indicated to followers...
...those obstacles is the set. which is actually dysfunctional: it is basically black and decorated with abstract paint dribbles and splotches that provide an effective backdrop for the urban scene described in "My Town," but smother the beauty of the other songs. The lighting is simple, but does nothing to soften the harshness...
...tour to promote Foreign Affairs, his fifth album, Waits is playing in fewer of the seedy nightclubs that have long been his backdrop as a performer and his inspiration as an artist. At 27, he is a street-smart scuffler who writes knowingly of dingy bars, all-night diners and down-and-outers on the make. Says he: "Life is picking up a girl with bad teeth, or getting to know one of those wild-eyed rummies down on Sixth Avenue...