Word: defective
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Among members of my family, the word bath is pronounced "baff." It's not that we have some hereditary speech defect or obscure regional accent. It's because at one point or another, we all read Donald Barthelme's novel Snow White, a retelling of the classic fairy tale, and became obsessed with it. In Barthelme's version, the seven dwarfs say "baff" instead of "bath." I don't know why. But now we do too. (The dwarfs also sleep with Snow White and sell Chinese-themed baby food for a living. They still say "heigh-ho," though...
...Simon Fischel, harvested nine eggs from a woman who had undergone 13 failed cycles of IVF implantation and, in addition, suffered two miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy. Using a laser scalpel, they extracted the polar bodies from the eggs and analyzed them. Two of the nine proved defect-free, and both were implanted. One took hold. (Read "Calculating the Odds of a Baby Through...
...North Korean defectors, have reportedly been floated across the border into North Korea. The recent flyers implore North Koreans to fight against Kim Jong Il and condemn his regime. Activists have also been stuffing dollars and Chinese yuan into the balloons, ostensibly to help North Koreans seeking to defect through its border with China. "Of course they've responded negatively because we mentioned Kim Jong Il's health," says Choi...
...winner of American Idol gets as much attention as the winner of the presidential election, personality counts for a great deal. Back in the Colonial era when everyone was dignified, a sense of humor in a major public figure was viewed as something along the lines of a congenital defect. George Washington didn’t have to make us laugh; he just had to establish precedents and avoid chopping down more cherry trees than he could possibly help. But somewhere along the line, Americans began expecting their Presidents to do more than just govern. They also had to make...
Republicans over the past weeks have made it clear they'd welcome Lieberman if he chooses to defect. "Joe Lieberman is certainly going to be a wild card," Senator John Ensign, a Nevada Republican, told MSNBC last week. "And it depends - you know, we welcome Joe. I think Joe's a terrific guy with a lot of integrity and does what he believes...