Word: manness
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Rather than a biographical re-hash - wise, for possibly only Jesus bests Lincoln in the number of published books devoted to a single person - Gopnik offers a meditation on each man's most literary qualities: Lincoln's deceptively simple legalistic language and Darwin's crystalline powers of observation. And what could have been a gimmick (a book timed to twin bicentennials is as close as historical biographies get to a home run) becomes something more, a learned treatise that worships learning. Gone is the overly twee writing of Gopnik's memoir-inflected works (Paris to the Moon, Through the Children...
...Espionage dramas need their mysteries, and the first one here is: the international what? Has that adjective become a noun, like the continental or the cosmopolitan? Is the international a man or an anthem, a cartel or a cocktail...
...sticks his head in a basin of ice. (It works!) There's a pretty cool demonstration of "trajectory analysis," in which Salinger and Whitman determine the angle of an assassin's bullet by poking sticks through a perforated wall, and a Holmesian moment when Salinger, examining the impression a man's shoe has left in some dirt, says, "I've seen that print before...
...production number is an extended kill scene set in New York City's Guggenheim Museum. IBBC has sent a squad of thugs to end the contract of the Consultant (Brían F. O'Byrne), formerly the bank's favorite hit man. The scene, which required the duplication in Munich of Frank Lloyd Wright's landmark gallery, lasts about 15 minutes and should keep all customers satisfied, as Salinger and the Consultant briefly team up to blast their way out. It makes fine use of Wright's spiraling strip, lacking only a climactic getaway via motorcycle, wheelchair or roller skates...
...what we've been waiting for," she said. "With Tsvangirai in government ... [this] is where the future of the country lies." Freeman Matake of Masvingo added, "This is the dawn of a new era in Zimbabwe." A police officer, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, agreed. "This man seems to be the answer to our problems. His determination is a source of hope." (See pictures from the tense walk-up to Zimbabwe's elections...