Word: joking
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...there's a funny-weird disconnect between his personality and his obsession--and Streep works up a fine, ladylike glow of perspiration stalking him. But the movie ends in a burst of violence that we are unprepared for and don't believe. Maybe it's the film's final joke: Donald's cheesy screenwriting manner winning out over Charlie's. In fact, the mythical brother shares a writing credit on the film. But still, it feels like a desperation move--the big bang that for no good reason blows away this eccentric and often delightful little universe...
Poor Charlie. What's he to do but write a script about how he can't write a script--especially a script that anyone would readily green-light? That Adaptation, the finished film we are actually watching, is based on this desperate effort is his ultimate joke. Or the ultimate in self-referential moviemaking...
There's a Gerhard Schröder joke making the rounds in Germany that perfectly captures the hapless Chancellor's predicament. Schröder tries to console an unemployed architect, telling him, "If I weren't Chancellor, I'd be building houses." The irate architect shoots back: "If you weren't Chancellor, I'd be building houses, too." Barely two months after he won re-election by a wafer-thin margin, Schröder's handling of the country's sputtering economy has made him the most unpopular leader in postwar Germany. People feel betrayed and lied to by Schr...
...national airline Lufthansa to say it was considering moving its program overseas, which would eliminate 500 jobs. The government will impose a flat 15% tax on capital gains from the sales of shares and houses, boost gasoline taxes and offer fewer subsidies for new home construction (hence the architect joke). At the same time, unemployment benefits will be cut by j6 billion next year. "These policies will push a country already stagnating into recession," says Norbert Walter, chief economist of Deutsche Bank. Support for Schröder's Social Democratic Party is so weak that the upper house of parliament...
...many angry reactions from people whose home towns you criticize? Surprisingly few. People from Bradford got very upset - there were lots of letters to the local papers. The sad thing is that they acknowledged the truth of what I said, even though it was only a joke. They just thought it was rude of me to point...