Word: notion
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...scare you, then smiles, gets too close, closer than the permissible 18 in., touches you and gives you a nickname. If that hasn't won you over completely, he moves on to someone else, and you go down on his Suspicious Characters List. In Washington, Republicans cling to the notion that "W" is tougher, and tougher-minded, than the sentimental dad, that he is steelier, a realist who isn't afraid of Democrats, reporters, anyone. It is said so often and by so many people that it's easy to forget the old man could be tough too. The difference...
...staff writer for the New Yorker, thinks about in The Tipping Point (Little, Brown; 279 pages; $24.95), a somersaulting exercise in social theory that tries to explain how ideas and trends are spread. Like germs, is Gladwell's answer. Hush Puppies and Big Bird, hypodermics and Republicanism--every notion and product can catch on in ways that resemble medical contagions. The most explosive are set off when very effective carriers spread very potent strains in very conducive settings. And in these social outbursts, Gladwell tells us, small things have big consequences...
...Tipping Point assembles talking points from childhood development, marketing and social epidemiology, and holds them up at an angle that lets one distant notion attach to another. If sometimes the book reads like a primer in sales technique--Get that message out!--it's also an ingenious guide to the ways in which antismoking and needle-exchange programs, well, get that message out. Gladwell's message is optimistic. The world "may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push--in just the right place--it can be tipped." Got that? Just...
...just as startling and symbolic as the beginning, and also makes use of wine glass imagery. The wine glasses lower from the ceiling, and the guests drop them once more, as if forever abandoning the notion of a happy marriage, leaving the bride, her husband and her lover in the center of the stage. Overall, the piece has lots of impact and emotional appeal--the viewer can't help but wonder what is haunting the characters and why their relationships aren't working...
...openly. Tex. Gov. George W. Bush and Ariz. Sen. John S. McCain, their opposition to such a step made clear, have meanwhile shown little desire to rekindle the debate. The quiescence surrounding the issue may be welcome respite in a campaign season that, with every passing day, belies the notion of newfound public civility. But the temporary political truce on homosexuality in the military is a troubled one. The situation on the ground is as volatile as ever...