Word: banter
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...banter, there was an underlying sense of urgency about the talks. The seizing of American hostages in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had transformed the summit, said a Begin aide, "from just a discussion on Palestinian autonomy to a broad consideration of regional matters." At their second session, beside the hotel swimming pool, the two men pored intently over a large map of the Middle East and Southwest Asia, with Sadat using his pipestem as a pointer. The leaders found that their views of the Iranian and Afghan crises coincided. Responding to a dinner toast, with Sadat nodding...
Quinn began and ended her series by saying that Brzezinski would consent to be interviewed only if she would move in with him while his wife was away for a few weeks. Brzezinski is generally regarded as a happily married square with an unfortunate taste for jocular banter of the kind that Henry Kissinger, the "secret swinger," used to affect, as if being considered sexy improved on the dour image of being brainy. But reporters always have the advantage: their account of any conversation is what gets printed. Quinn's friends probably put it down as jocular banter when...
...Griffin is the most disarming of ego strokers; Mike Douglas runs him a close second in the ingratiation stakes; and Dick Cavett creates the illusion that he is your guest, enjoying a slightly subversive private chat. Carson, on the other hand, operates on a level of high, freewheeling, centrifugal banter that is well above the snow line. Which is not to say that he is hostile. Carson treats you with deference and genuine curiosity. But the air is chill; you are definitely on probation...
...world's highest-paid star; in Capri, Italy. Born Grace Stansfield in the mill town of Rochdale, she sang at age eight in the local cinema. Though never a beauty and hardly a diva, she set music halls roaring in the '20s with her cheeky Lancastrian banter, stouthearted warbling and flea-scratching, "low-but-clean" brand of clowning. Her 1931 film debut in Sally in Our Alley gave her a theme song, Sally, and endeared her to all England as "Our Gracie." During World War II she toured wherever there were Allied troops and then raised $1 million...
...interrupt the order of the scene, the guardsmen ask you firmly, not nastily, to leave. "No one goes past here," one says, drawing an invisible line. Obey, and you can banter all you want. Cross the mark, though, and suddenly the guard looks more imposing...