Word: odd
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When Peking announced this summer that Jiang Zemin would replace the avuncular Wang Daohan as Shanghai's mayor, the choice seemed a bit odd. No one doubted that Jiang, 59, was a man of high accomplishment. A Soviet-trained electrical engineer fluent in four languages, Jiang distinguished himself in China's Administrative Commission of Import and Export Affairs for three years before becoming, and excelling as, the Minister of Electronics Industry. But Jiang, as he is the first to admit, had never run a municipality before, let alone his country's largest industrial city (pop. 12 million). "I'm inexperienced...
...contradictions. Waterston disappoints a bit, wobbling in his accent and never quite finding the passion, only the hysteria, of his man. Jones' smirky hauteur is chilling as his destructive tactics succeed. Both the architect and his nemesis contend that nothing ever changes, and Frayn finds lyric beauty and an odd moral equality in the one's dream, the other's nihilism. --By William A. Henry...
Gravity, however, would still remain the odd force out. No experimental evidence has emerged to confirm the existence of its transmitting agent, the graviton. And though this hypothetical particle has been accommodated mathematically in unified theories, such models have been fatally flawed by anomalies that leave the theories meaningless. The crux of the problem: the electroweak and strong forces are quantum forces, whereas gravity is still defined only as a consequence of the curvature of space and time and thus cannot yet be explained in terms of quantum physics...
...when they eventually come to intimacies, things turn out just fine: softcolored lights, unforced endearments, a jolly bathtub wallow and the strains of Marianne's favorite pop tune, Sugarbaby, percolating in their ears. This is about where Writer-Director Percy Adlon (Celeste, The Swing) gets carried away with his odd-couple romance. Gooey gels clot the lens, and the camera sways without reason like an inebriated gyroscope; bring a neck brace. But Adlon holds his focus on his heroine, who, in ecstasy or defeat, knows that love means never having to care that you're silly...
Blauer and other experts expect Price to put more of the company's odd collection of businesses up for sale, and to embark on a management shake-up. The new chairman is also likely to continue the cost-cutting efforts that led to last year's dismissal of more than 7,000 workers in Control Data's computer-peripherals division. Whatever steps he takes, Price may have only limited time to prove himself. If he does not quickly turn Control Data into a leaner and more profitable company, the firm's anxious bankers could soon demand his ouster...