Word: abracadabra
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...LONG NIGHT, by Martin Caldin (242 pp.; Dodd, Mead; $3), drops a fictional atom bomb on a U.S. industrial town and morbidly watches the gory disaster work itself out. World War III comes to Harrington, U.S.A. with a touch of abracadabra-jabber at the air defense control towers: "Three. Multimotor. Low. One minute. Alpha Quebec Two Four Green . . ." This means enemy bombers. Author Caidin, a science writer, observes the beginning of the cataclysm through the little eyes of Henry Thompson, a jelly-spined civil defense map plotter who is quivering in his movie seat when the warning sirens sound...
...civilization we are dedicated to defend. It was conversation of which the New Testament, the greatest teaching ever recorded, was composed . . . Great books, scientific discoveries, works of art, great perceptions of truth and beauty in any form, all require great conversation to complete their meaning; without it they are abracadabra-color to the blind or music to the deaf. Conversation is the handmaid of learning, true religion and free government." His reflections had prodded Dr. Griswold, one of whose hobbies has long been a scrutiny of the academic scene, into a reappraisal of what higher education is all about. Ventured...
...Broadway original, and like most movies with a weighty message, Home pays a heavy price for treating human beings as if they were clearly defined symbols in a propaganda tract. Another weakness to be chalked up to Playwright Laurents: the arguments against discrimination get badly mixed up with the abracadabra of psychiatry...
...film sometimes lies limp under such feeble abracadabra, but sometimes it stands on end at a weird glimpse of real black magic. Everett Sloane, as Rita's lame and jealous husband, crawls through the picture as horribly as a spider; and Glenn Anders, as a man who madly plots his own murder, has developed a soundless laugh as chilling as a razor's edge scraped across plate glass. Orson has done a capable job with his brogue, a flashy one with the camera. But not all of his magic works. He makes a blonde out of his onetime...
...wiped his ashen face. "And remember," said the little man, "conserve your energies on offense. You can't rest on defense." The boys bounded up from the benches; clapping and shouting, they moved into a huddle. Hands piled on hands, players and coach recited a Hail Mary at abracadabra speed, ended it: "Mary, Queen of Victory, pray for us." Then Edgar Hickey and his St. Louis University Billikens were ready for the finals of the National Intercollegiate Invitation Basketball Tournament...