Word: kingness
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...week in the Damas (Damascus) room was a lot more serene than any stay in the real Syrian capital, with a king-size canopy bed and a stone balcony shaded by a huge tree in which birds chirped all day. From the Maison's front gate you can see the near-completed Burj Dubai with its 166 stories - still the world's tallest tower. But that seems a universe away when you're indulging in Dubai's rarest luxury: peace and quiet. www.lamaisondhotesdubai.com
What about those Abu Ghraib photographs? In "King Leopold's Soliloquy," a fulminating essay he published in 1905, when he was a very cantankerous 70, Twain imagines the ruler of Belgium pitying himself for the inconvenience of photos showing natives of the Congo whose hands have been cut off by Belgian exploiters. In the good old days, Leopold complains, he could deny atrocities and be believed. "Then all of a sudden came the crash! That is to say, the incorruptible Kodak--and all the harmony went to hell! The only witness I have encountered in my long experience that...
...backroom poker player, on the other hand, is more cautious and self-absorbed. Card games may be social, but they are played in solitude. No need for drama. The quiet card counter is king, and only a novice banks on luck. In this game, a good bluff trumps blind faith, and the studied observer beats the showman. So it is fitting that the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, raked in so many pots in his late-night games with political friends...
Judith Escalona visits the General Cemetery in southern Caracas at least once a month. At the tomb of Ismaelito, she pours the dead man a drink and lights him cigarette after cigarette. Ismaelito was no relative, however. He is the king of the santos malandros - the holy thugs. The purpose of Escalona's tribute, including the prayers she offers to Ismaelito, is protection. Almost 50 people die from criminal violence in any given week in Caracas. Escalona's store has been burgled several times, but she is grateful that no one has been killed - and she hopes Ismaelito will keep...
...There is no doubt in his devotees' minds, for example, that Ismaelito, the king of the holy thugs, was a thief and one of the most wanted crooks of his time. Still, among many who knew him when he lived, he's considered more of a Robin Hood than a criminal. In El Guarataro, a shantytown in southeastern Caracas, those who knew him remember the time he raided a meat delivery truck and shared the bounty among his neighbors. "I was an errand boy," recalls Carlos Flores, 50. "He would steal, but he never killed. Today's malandro is mean...