Word: abruptness
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Lloyd's superior acting abilities are confirmed in the second act. When his wife triumphs, he must abandon the veneer of harsh soldier and become a wimpering child. While within the play the transformation is abrupt and slightly unconvincing, Lloyd manages to maintain as much credibility playing an emotional ragdoll as he does portraying the assertive officer. Although The Captain's final speech is given within the confines of a straitjacket, Lloyd transcends these physical limitations and creates the play's most haunting moment...
...rate of consumption and the level in each of the aircraft's tanks. Circling at low ; altitudes, as Flight 52 did, consumes more fuel than normal cruising, possibly throwing off the engineer's calculations, though not the gauges. Another source of trouble could have been the 707's abrupt climb after the aborted landing. Aviation experts say this could have sloshed what remained of the fuel to the back of the tanks, where the fuel pumps cannot reach...
With the telephone, reality began to dematerialize and go magic, < disintegrating here to recombine over there. Information began riding around the world on electricity. The abrupt disconnection of such a familiar yet mysterious faculty, the telephone, must be profoundly unsettling -- like a glimpse of a dead world, a premonition of absolute cold...
...cricket. But Antonia casts herself as the junior talent. "I don't criticize Harold's work. I influence Harold, I contribute to his work by living with him, by talking to him." She contributes in another way repeatedly cited by friends: Pinter's manner is as angular and abrupt as his characters, but, observes a friend, "Antonia smooths over the offenses before the evening is out. She is quite good as stage manager...
...painting Noriega as one of the villains of the century: not only a drug kingpin but also an arms smuggler and a murderous tyrant. How come? Why did the U.S. so long support Noriega despite the gathering evidence of his unsavory activities? And why did it then do an abrupt about-face...