My spectacles, please!

without your spectacles?

Who is that gentleman in spectacles?

A man with a mustache and spectacles?

We won't hide your spectacles so you can't see

Will you please give me those spectacles? They belong to me.

Even among such a variety of spectacles, Shiraito was quite a crowd pleaser.

You know, that's a very large nose for a very small pair of spectacles.

Because leaders cannot be ousted through elections, other means must be found to resolve political conflicts. Sometimes, that entails deliberate public spectacles.

From 2000 to date we have sent in excess of 200,000 spectacles to poor people in Sri Lanka, who have difficulty in providing their own.

But once they have staged their spectacles, at vast expense to the host country, they move on. This is especially galling in countries where much of the population is poor and deprived of decent schools or proper medical services.

COPENHAGEN One of the stranger spectacles of the climate change debate was the sight, earlier this month, of NASA climate scientist Jim Hansen marching hand in hand with Hollywood actress Darryl Hannah outside the Capitol Coal Power Plant in Washington, DC.

It also produces rather good wine. An enduring memory from my own recent visit to its capital Chisinau is the election poster of a local politician called Lupu, who holds a pair of spectacles to his eyes, whether to suggest visions or wisdom isn t clear.

These types of spectacles used to be reserved for the nomination of Supreme Court justices a lifetime appointment to a nine member body that can overturn laws passed by Congress and signed by the president. But those full throttle battles have now spilled over to other nominations.

After the Soviet Union s collapse, Russia, no longer a superpower, put its military spectacles on ice. But in 2005, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII, Putin held a major parade one that Western leaders, believing that Russia might have a European future, did attend.

JOHANNESBURG By hosting the World Cup this month, South Africa is set to defy Africa s image as too poor and trouble ridden to stage one of the world s great spectacles. With its pursuit of research into the farthest reaches of the universe deep space South Africa hopes to provide further proof that Africans can compete at all levels.