Despite shortages of money and supplies, a Government monopoly on printing presses and occasional police harassment, a new generation of samizdat, or self-published, journals is offering an open challenge to the official press. The alternative press now includes dozens of magazines in Moscow and Leningrad, with others reported in the Baltic republics, the Ukraine and Armenia.

[H]owever hard she pushed the tough-talkin' shtick, she remained doe-eyed, glowing and somehow unassailably demure.

In some places, the air conditioning was turned up earlier in the day to precool buildings, and then turned down during peak hours.

Basketball went from a game of set shots and long jumpers to a game played above the rim, characterized by earth-shattering dunks.