Word: avoidance
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Elizabeth S. Nowak ’10 practices what is called aggressive modesty. When asked a question about one of her humanitarian aid trips to Africa or sub-Saharan adventures, she tends to respond with a question to avoid talking about herself. Stories like how she instructed Sudanese midwives in newborn resuscitation and spent nights in Kenya defending her room from murderous swarms of locusts only come out in passing...
Being Jewish means that Christmas is not a big deal. We’ve managed to avoid the whole gift thing, which is great. We don’t have to spend weeks shopping for gifts people will throw out. I know I sound like Scrooge. Bah humbug. I love latkes, but we kind of worry about all that oil so we don’t always make latkes...
...slump into my office chair on an average Monday, I catch it out of the corner of my eye—a pulsating red light. It’s summoning me, beckoning me, pleading with me to check my voicemail. I spend all afternoon trying to avoid it, taking care of other trivial tasks until I can resist no longer. I dial the number...
...public. The scandal has claimed the scalps of former Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung and the German army's chief of staff, Wolfgang Schneiderhan. Paying compensation to victims' families is one way to draw a line under the affair as quickly as possible. An out-of-court settlement would avoid a long legal battle with relatives of the victims, and the amount of the payout will depend on the number of civilian casualties. A Defense Ministry spokesman says the government hopes for "a fast, unbureaucratic solution...
...office worker in a brown suit settled in close by. The medic shifted a battered fedora over his eyes. "I am the gay doctor," the physician whispered to me, making sure nobody around heard. He talked about the gay and lesbian couples who go to his office to avoid ridicule in public hospitals. "They know they can trust me, and trust is a big issue," he said. "There is the stigma of being gay, but also the stigma of being [HIV] positive. They are such hidden communities. Nobody wants to deal with their problems...