WordWealth: acropolis

a·crop·o·lis , n.

And it got better. The British Museum, sick of a century of Greek whingeing about its refusal to return to sculptures to the Acropolis, was now demanding the repatriation of the entire Parthenon to Britain where it would be rebuilt as a part of a "shopping centre and multiplex cinema" in the West Midlands. —— Fiachra Gibbon in How the Belgians lost their marbles; The Guardian, Dec 07, 2002

I've almost reached the end of my velvet rope. So many upscale nightspots opened in the last 13 months -- including Acropolis, Dream, the Harbour Club, Spank, Toka Cafe, the VIP Club, Vida and Zanzibar on the Waterfront's Skyclub -- that the VIP rooms and headset-wearing bouncers were becoming a blur. —— Fritz Hahn in A Welcome Home, Nightwatch; The Washington Post, Jan 10, 2003

As in the case of Andr Maginot's vaunted line on the French-German border and the Great Wall of China, such linear fortifications can be bypassed or even attacked from the rear. The Spartans felt walls of all sorts had a bad effect on morale: By refusing to build fortifications around their acropolis, they claimed that for 700 years they had maintained an offensive ardor in their youth that provided far better security than a few stacked stones. —— Victor Davis Hanson in Fortress Israel?, Something There that Doesn’t Love a Wall in; National Review, June 25, 2002

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