Word: ancient
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...ancient scold, with a new Jeremiah sounding the doom cry. Ben J. Wattenberg, a demographic analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington, warns that the U.S. and other Western nations are not producing babies fast enough. Since 1957, writes Wattenberg in his new book The Birth Dearth (Pharos Books; $16.95), the average American woman's fertility rate has dropped from 3.77 children to 1.8 -- below the 2.1 size needed to maintain the present population level. Meanwhile, he argues, Communist-bloc nations are producing at a rate of 2.3 children per mother, while the Third World rate is rising...
Worse, commands yelled from the stern carry poorly through the ship. The ancient who gave orders, notes Morrison, "must have had a very loud voice and throat pastilles." Still, the bruised and weary crew seemed to be catching on. After a week of trials, it achieved a rhythmic 28 to 30 strokes a minute and a top speed of 21.7 knots in the stripped-down vessel. Everyone cheered. "See," crowed Morrison, "it works...
...between Iraq and Iran, however, Iraqi Shi'ites, who make up almost 60% of their country's population, have chosen to be Iraqis first and Shi'ites second. The ancient animosity between Arabs and Persians apparently transcends religious sympathies. Nonetheless, the Iraqis receive constant reminders of Iranian Shi'ite fervor. Tehran's major offensives are named Karbala, after the place where Hussein died, and captured Iranian soldiers proudly show off the "keys to Heaven" issued to them when they enlisted. The celestial keys: dog tags. Observes an Iraqi official: "The Iranians are still fighting the Battle of Hussein...
...replica of the fabled trireme, the 170- oar warship that brought glory to ancient Athens, undergoes sea trials in the Mediterranean...
...presumed to have long since made their peace with the printer's devil. In fact, however, the ranks of crime writers are as beleaguered as any other by the need for compromise. The battle rarely focuses on setting, which may be urban or rural, domestic or foreign, modern or ancient, or on subject matter, for which these days the rule seems to be the kinkier the better. The clash comes instead over format. Most writers seem to prefer one-shot stories, as full of catharsis as a classic tragedy, while publishers -- and readers -- clamor for series in which a likable...