The Indian Express -- Leisure

Friday, November 07 1997

TODAY'S CROSSWORD TODAY'S ZODIAC

Film fest has makings of grim drama

London's 41st annual film festival opens today amid tales of broken promises, back-biting and political intrigue that threatens to overshadow the movies themselves. The 18-day festival's roster of some 200 films mixes arthouse cool with Hollywood glitz, showcasing films about neurotic writers, twisted teenagers and swinging suburbanites.

From `Radioactivity' to `Blairite', wordsmiths coin words of the century

If an Indian or a Pakistani were asked what single word they associated with 1947, chances are they would say ``independence'' or perhaps ``partition''. But lexicographers at Collins English Dictionaries say that the word that best describes 1947 is `flying saucer'. In an age when lists appear to have become the short-hand to classifying things, people and ideas, British lexicographers are arguing over lists of words that define the 20th century.

Innocent by birth

"Jailed by the system that freed OJ", screamed The Mirror newspaper the day a jury of 12 people pronounced 19-year-old Louise Woodward guilty of the murder of eight-month-old Matthew Eappen. It summed up the popular feeling in the UK that American justice was no justice. The OJ Simpson trial, which was followed through every blood stain and glove, had been proof positive that the media circus that was part of high-profile case in the US did not allow justice to be done. The Woodward case, has just solidified this view.

Film fest has makings of grim drama

From `Radioactivity' to `Blairite', wordsmiths coin words of the century

Innocent by birth

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