Word: ils
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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Back in the days when you went to a joint with checkered tablecloths and candles stuck in straw-covered Chianti bottles to order spaghetti with red sauce, grappa was the throat-searing firewater that il padrone sometimes served with espresso if he was in a very good mood. Just as pasta has gone upscale and pricey, so has this Italian peasant brandy, usually colorless, that is distilled from grape husks and skins after the juice has been pressed to make wine. These days, many of Italy's top vintners are aging and refining grappa and infusing it with herb...
...later, on the aging Chosonminhang airlines plane into Pyongyang -- the carrier runs only five flights a week, linking the capital to Moscow, Beijing, Khabarovsk and Sofia -- the Briton was the only sightseer in evidence. Most of the passengers were North Koreans (easily identified by the badge depicting President Kim Il Sung that every North Korean must pin over his heart) and Japanese businessmen, apparently undeterred by the fact that North Korea is the only country that Japanese nationals are not permitted by their government to visit...
Radios are fixed so they can receive only the one acceptable station, and a loudspeaker is installed in every home. The display case in a hotel bookstore features 114 different works, all by Kim Il Sung or his son and heir apparent, Kim Jong Il. Martial music is piped in throughout the country, even in the bus taking passengers from airplane to terminal; by daybreak, when workers march to their jobs, a fast, furious female voice is already shouting exhortations from a hidden amplifier in the street...
Meanwhile, an additional 50,000 apartments are being completed for Kim Il Sung's 80th birthday in 1992. Many Korea watchers believe in that year, when Kim Jong Il turns 50, the father may hand power over to the son. Though citizens in Pyongyang still seem eager to attest to their devotion to their leaders, some of their enthusiasm may be quickened by the fact that theirs is one of the most militarized countries in the world (with nearly 900,000 troops among its 21 million people). According to the human-rights group Asia Watch, as many...
...Vellucci, since I do not expect you to overcome your obvious insensitivity, I imagine that you will continue to take blind pride in Christopher Columbus in the same way that a few nostalgic Italians take pride in Il Dulce...