Word: grails
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Influence is the Washington grail. In a sense, influence peddling is what democracy is all about. The voter who complains to his Congressman about air pollution is peddling his influence, though far less openly than an industry promoting a tax break. The conflict between group interests, which defines U.S. politics, has also produced an army of expert lobbyists, many of whom actually improve lawmaking by carefully analyzing bills that help or hurt their clients. On some issues, lobbyists cancel one another out, and the merits decide the case. Unfortunately, the game lacks adequate rules...
...conference table. Secure in the countryside and immune from interdiction by air, they could husband their forces and then assault the allied-held cities with far greater strength than they showed in the past two weeks. Nor is it true that the Viet Cong alone guard the grail of Vietnamese nationalism. They are simply better organized than the hopelessly fragmented moderates, who also qualify as genuine nationalists; and the V.C. are far more adept at the use of terror and brutality to gain their ends. Still, despite more than a few drawbacks, Galbraith's proposals do offer at least...
...rest of the movie is a sado-masochistic version of an old-fashioned quest-not for a golden fleece or a Holy Grail, but for Lee's stolen share of the stolen loot. His techniques are sometimes interesting-as when he uses a white 1967 Chrysler convertible to subdue a bad-guy passenger by crashing, crunching and slamming the car into a junkyard heap. His invasion of the syndicate's impregnable penthouse (carpeted in wall-to-wall red fox fur) begins with a steamy sex wrestle and ends in a superbly vertiginous shot of a naked mobster arcing...
...Starting as a cubist, Reinhardt gradually reduced color, texture and deign to almost jet-black canvas squares, with only the slightest shadings of muted colors and black-on-black stripes. "I'm just making the last paintings anyone can make," he said. Critics long tended to dismiss his grail as more void than essence, yet in recent years the art world rewarded his search with fame and up to $15,000 per canvas...
Harsh Terms. The America's Cup is the closest thing to a Holy Grail in sport. "On no other sporting prize," wrote the late Everett B. Morris, in his definitive history Sailing for America's Cup, "has so much gold, technical virtuosity, brainpower and brawn been expended." The contest, not the old Victorian silver ewer, is the thing. In the demands it makes on boat and man, it is the ultimate, the very pinnacle in yachting. What started 116 years ago as a gentlemen's lark, has become a proving ground for technocrats, a vast public spectacle...