(2) Carla Anne Robbins, The Spy in the Corner Office. The CEO of $31 billion defense behemoth General Dynamics is a former CIA operative. But if you think Phebe Novakovic is about to spill her secrets, you’re dead wrong. (under the heading: “Phebe Novakovic; Chairman and CEO General Dynamics”).
http://fortune.com/2015/09/11/phebe-novakovic-general-dynamics/
Note:
(a) "After Phebe Novakovic married Michael Vickers in 1985, the alumnae magazine at her alma mater, Smith College, announced the nuptials. 'Mike and Phebe met in the foreign service,' the entry cheerfully reported. That is what is known in the espionage trade as a cover story. In fact, the two met while working for the Central Intelligence Agency."
(i) Phebe as a given name is usually spelled
Phoebe (given name)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_(given_name)
(ii) Apparently that is her first husband, for the article later discloses her current husband:
"True to her CIA past, Novakovic is notoriously elusive, especially when it comes to her personal life. Some years ago, when she was working at General Dynamics but hadn’t yet ascended to the top role, a former company executive recalls, 'someone suggested we run an idea past David Morrison.' Morrison was then a top staffer on the House defense appropriations subcommittee, a powerful figure in defense contracting. 'Phebe said she would talk to him at dinner,' the former executive recalls. 'When I asked if she was seeing him that night, she said, "I have dinner with him most nights." I knew both of them, but it was only then that I figured out that they were married [to each other].' (Morrison later became Boeing’s chief lobbyist. He has since retired and is studying divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary.)
(b) "Novakovic’s role in the agency is more of a 'known unknown.' * * * But like any good operative, Novakovic doesn’t so much as whisper a word about her activities."
(i) There are known knowns
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns
(ii) so much as (adv): "EVEN <[somebody else] scowls if I so much as look at him>"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/so%20much%20as
(c) "Says Linda Hudson, a former US CEO of defense contractor BAE Systems who once worked with Novakovic: 'Phebe has hit it out of the park streamlining the organization [General Dynamics].' "
hit one out of the ballpark
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hit_one_out_of_the_ballpark
(d) "Novakovic also forgoes another CEO affectation: Rather than travel with a royal-size retinue, she tends to bring no more than two or three executives to Pentagon meetings."
affectation (n)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affectation
(e) "She has repeated that promise, and kept to it, ever since."
keep to
(i)
"1: keep to sth (PLAN)[:] to do what you have promised or planned to do <I think we should keep to our original plan"
2: keep to sth (SUBJECT)[:] If you keep to a particular subject, you only talk about that subject <For heaven's sake let's keep to the point or we'll never reach any decisions"
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/keep-to-sth
(ii)
"1a : to stay in
b : to limit oneself to
2: to abide by"
a phrase within the verb: keep
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/keep
(f) "GD’s marine division and Huntington Ingalls were jointly awarded a $17.6 billion, 10-year contract to build 10 Virginia-class submarines for the US Navy."
Huntington Ingalls Industries
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntington_Ingalls_Industries
(formed in 2011 as a spin-off of Northrop Grumman; The company takes its name from the founders of its two main facilities: Collis P Huntington (Newport News) and Robert Ingalls (Pascagoula))
(g) "when an opportunity feels as if it’s in the company’s wheelhouse, Novakovic pushes hard for a big win."
(i) definitions:
(A) "1: a part of a boat or ship serving as a shelter for the person at the wheel.
2: Baseball the part of a batter’s strike zone most likely to produce a home run
2.1: (one's wheelhouse) US a place or situation in which one is advantageously at ease <as the campaign swings to the south, that should be right in his wheelhouse>"
http://www.oxforddictionaries.co ... _english/wheelhouse
Definitions 2 and 2.1 are only found in Oxford’s American English -- but not in British English -- page.
(ii) wheelhouse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelhouse
(may refer to “In baseball jargon: The sweet spot of a baseball player's strike zone where the most power and strength can be utilized”)
(ii) Why?
The Word Detective, Issue of June 7, 2004
www.word-detective.com/060704.html
(read only the section whose heading is “And the crowd goes wild”)
The cable car in City of San Francisco has a turntable. Use images.google.com.
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发表于 9-23-2015 17:39:19
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