Word: arcana
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...Sierra in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. It is an experience in mountaineering as well as skiing. The route rises 6,000 ft., almost straight up from the roadhead, to peaks of 13,000 ft. and more. One requirement: a small radio transmitter for avalanche protection. Other arcana may include polypropylene underwear, vapor-barrier booties and avalanche-probe ski poles. The reward of the trek is skier's cocaine: unmarred 1,500-ft. alpine slopes. Experts claim the trail is the equal of Europe's Haute Route from Chamonix, France, to Zermatt, Switzerland...
...Ukrainian cafeteria in the east twenties. Though craven in the utmost, he dashes off to Djibouti or Jakarta at a moments notice, spewing out words along the way like "henbane," "anchor," "parlous," "jardiniere" as well as an occasional "zounds" or "sweet-patootie". A cultural sponge that oozes erudition and arcana, he recalls Yeats in the same breath that he expounds on an ancient tooth powder advertisement. No matter what guise he shows up in, Perelman's persona is a curious mixture of gallic pride, English cynicism, and mostly, Yiddish fatalism. He is a foil who ventures quixotically into the world...
...producer of NBC's Today show: "We have a beautiful princess, a royal wedding, a glorious sight, all overlaid with the threat of violence." To capture this perfect script, TV journalists plotted their coverage for months, haggling over camera position, importing tons of equipment, steeping correspondents in royal arcana...
...legislators: Cohen, Hatfield and Alaska's Ted Stevens among the Senate's controlling Republicans; Hart, Nunn and Michigan's Carl Levin among Democratic Senators; Republicans Jack Edwards of Alabama, Newton Gingrich of Georgia and New York Democrat Joseph Addabbo in the House. By immersing themselves in the technical arcana of defense arguments, they have won the respectful attention of their colleagues...
...this week's cover story on genetic engineering and its commercial applications, Reporter-Researcher Philip Faflick needed to confirm how many genes there are in a human cell. A call to the Time Inc. library promptly produced the answer: approximately 100,000. Unearthing such arcana is routine for the library's research staff. In recent months, it has been asked the gestation period of a cow (284 days), whether identical twins have the same fingerprints (no), the height of the Venus de Milo (6 ft. 8 in.) and whether worms swim (yes). Sometimes a straightforward answer does...