Word: badness
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...verb to mean "to inconvenience." It started back in the dim ages when officers' wives used to give evening parties where the poor military guests suffered in garotte collars weighed down with gold trolley cable. It soon came to be said that anything unpleasant was as bad as a "soiree." From this one can see readily the evolution of the word to its present meaning. Other expressions such as "Sammy," "spoony," "B.J.," and "B.S." have developed from just as obscure origins...
...citizens. The fact that a man who has had but a small amount of intoxicating liquor does not realize the gravity of the situation is one of the definite evils of the whole affair. The ill that may result to oneself from excess drinking, is not half so bad as that which may happen to sober members of society. The world needs fool-killers, and if the drinker injured himself alone we need not interfere...
...been reading a lot of bad things in the papers today about Harvard boys. I certainly hope they aren't all true...
...made a special trip to New York, that he might secure admission into the United States of copies of Rousseau's "Confessions," and of the complete works of Rabelais, both of which are used in French courses given by the University. For the time being, the situation is very bad, as all books are tied up at the customs office pending developments...
...status of affairs is clearly shown when it is explained that the condemnation of just one judge is sufficient to put any book on the banned list, which now contains 759 items. A government customs official, after looking through Rousseau's "Confessions," admitted that he saw nothing bad in them, but was forced, nevertheless, to refuse admittance for the book. He said that no matter what he might think, he could not do anything about letting the book into the country. Another unusual case is that in which a four hundred year old edition of the "Decameron" of Boccaccio...