Word: avuncularity
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...niceties of plot and narrative. This time out the protagonist, Istvan Horwat, is an East European champion who conquers Wimbledon and women until a little orphan forces him to abandon the Egomania Open. She is Natasha Kotany, the daughter of friends killed in a plane crash. Under Horwat's avuncular gaze, the girl blossoms into a beautiful woman and a court phenom. One night she astonishes him, if no one else, by inquiring, "Haven't you understood that ever since the first day, you have been the only man in my life?" Will she squander her youth on an aging...
Behind the bland, avuncular exterior, Segovia was a man of strong feelings. The electric guitar, of course, was anathema, and he denounced rock music as a "strange, terrible and dangerous disease." He often compared the guitar to a woman and boasted of his fidelity, yet he married three times. Nor was he so self-effacing as his calm demeanor and, late in life, his sometimes indifferent performances suggested. Given the guitar's limited repertoire, Segovia felt no compunction about arranging and reworking music for other instruments. "The composer has to work through me," he said. Indefatigable, he practiced five hours...
...appearances that put him in the big money. Moreover, a columnist is expected to be pigeonholed politically. The Gannett chain advises its 92 daily papers to pick columnists whose views range a broad spectrum -- from Mary McGrory's spirited liberalism, say, to James J. Kilpatrick's avuncular conservatism. But positioning isn't always enough: even in the age of Reagan, Jeane Kirkpatrick and Norman Podhoretz have not built significant reputations...
...Twain decided not to include this as a chapter in Huckleberry Finn. The tale is perhaps too completely black; it evokes throughout a strange mixture of gutlaughter and gut-fear. One thing's for sure: having read it, you won't think the same of Huckleberry Finn, or its avuncular author, again. Not for abjurers of dead baby jokes...
...thing has never been a snap to get right. Walter Cronkite liked to end his nightly broadcast with the avuncular "That's the way it is." The current network anchors have all been settling for run-of-the-mouth good-nights or see-you-tomorrows. But this month CBS's Dan Rather started signing off with the exhortation "Courage," and the last word on his lips suddenly became the first thing on everyone's mind. To some it sounded intrusive, even bossy, the sort of thing an earnest, not very close friend might say uneasily to end a chance meeting...