Word: virtually
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...least, the Cardinal most in the public eye is France's Jean Villot, the first non-Italian in modern times to be Camerlengo (Chamberlain) or interim administrator of the Vatican between Popes. Villot was Paul's Secretary of State, which theoretically made him the Vatican's virtual Prime Minister and eminently papabile. In fact, Curial Italians routinely bypassed the Frenchman and dealt with Benelli, who was nominally Villot's assistant until he assumed the Florence see. But an adroit performance as Camerlengo could make Villot, 72, an attractive compromise choice...
Pius XII was chosen in a virtual snap election of less than 36 hours, John XXIII in five days, Paul in less than 48 hours. Though anything is possible, no comparable speed is expected this time ? unless the weather plays a persuasive role. Even in the wilting heat and humidity of Rome in August, protocol demands that the Cardinals don violet cassocks topped with woolen capes. Their temporary living quarters (or "cells") in the Apostolic Palace during the conclave lack air conditioning. Says one prelate: "Perhaps the heat will combine with divine revelation to help them reach a decision...
...argument than ever before. While fewer than 2,000 lobbyists are registered with Congress under a largely ignored 1946 law, their actual number has soared from about 8,000 to 15,000 over the past five years. Their mass arrival has transformed Washington's downtown K Street into a virtual hall of lobbies. New office buildings springing up west of the White House along Pennsylvania Avenue fill up with lobbyists as soon as the painters walk out. It is estimated that lobbyists now spend $1 billion a year to influence Washington opinion, plus another $1 billion to orchestrate public opinion...
...height of the two-year Western drought, youngsters skateboarded on the dry concrete bed of the Los Angeles River. Shasta Lake receded to less than one-fourth its normal size, stranding boats on the rocky bottom. Folsom Lake, usually 260 ft. deep, was a virtual mud flat. The normally roaring Stanislaus River near Sacramento turned into a trickle. Kent reservoir serving Marin County dropped by more than a third of its usual level. Warned Richard Felch of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration: "We've got a good chance of another dust bowl...
...mission" to Jerusalem. But the passage of time had not changed attitudes. The Israeli government's response was only a crisp observation that five years after a peace agreement Israel would be willing to negotiate "the nature of future relations" between itself and the West Bank. With that virtual nonanswer, the Begin government signaled once more that it was determined to hold on to the West Bank and Gaza at any price, even at the cost of foreclosing the best opportunity Israel has had to make peace with its Arab neighbors since its founding 30 years...