Word: balderdash
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...discovering Britain, he pushed on-to the Orkneys, to the Shetlands, perhaps even to Iceland. Then, like thousands after him in the next 2,200 years, Pytheas the Greek was halted by a dense world of ice. His account of his six years' voyage was later dismissed as balderdash, and the world of the north was unvisited until the voyages of the Vikings...
Fearful that membership drives of more active organizations would deplete their swollen ranks, the SAL admitted it might lodge a mild pretest with College officials. "All this reform balderdash is getting rather trying," sighed President Bottle. "It's getting so a man can't stagnate in peace...
...amateur satirist knows, the hordes of captains, majors, commanders and other brasshats stationed in wartime Washington had other and even more crushing duties than just winning the war. Reams of mimeographed balderdash had to be stamped IMMEDIATE ACTION and provided with desk space on which to gather dust. Rival service arms had to be watched for symptoms of credit-grabbing. Above all, callers with something to offer that might help win the war had to be given The Treatment: identified, badged and tirelessly "channeled" from building to building and service to service till they wound up in despair back...
Lanny journeys to the West Coast, where Louella Parsons, floored by his dash and balderdash, gasps: "Somebody ought to give him a screen test." Hearst begs him to accept $50,000 a year for some random reportage. He has another bedside chat with the President (Lanny edits one of F.D.R.'s speeches, in which he invents and inserts the phrase "arsenal of democracy"), and is off to see Adolf Hitler chew a rug. Göring smuggle a swallow of dope, and "Rudi" Hess resolve to fly to England...
...Japanese have to do in future operations," said Tokyo solemnly, "is to project their indomitable spirit at the enemy and they will suffer internal fear that will defeat them before they get into the fight." Steeped in "thought control," the wartime Japanese apparently never question such spiritual balderdash...