Word: bland
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...George Grizzard reveal "something naked of the human condition. I've got to get him to take off his 'clothes.' " He failed. Grizzard is a buttoned-up Hamlet in a buttoned-down shirt, a bland suburbanite puzzled by the mess he is in, but with no hint of being the terrible plaything of destiny. He is the nice boy who always got good marks at Wittenberg U., never dented the family convertible, was engaged to that sweet Ophelia girl next door, and then inexplicably got his name splashed all over the tabloids by his revolting behavior toward...
Unusual Happenings. Alas, poor Sig! One day in 1956, with no advance warning, the British fired him. Not without cause. Sig's saga finally came to light last week in a remarkably bland report by the judicial tribunal that has spent three months investigating the latest British spy scandal: the strange case of William John Vassall, a homosexual Admiralty clerk who had been assigned to the Moscow embassy for two years, and had been spying for the Russians for seven. Vas-sall's superiors, and all but one of the officers who picked him out of 40 applicants...
Perhaps in Bits & Pieces. Both before and after Kennedy's bland statement, steel executives kept warily silent about their intentions. But it was widely believed that the industry would indeed raise prices, perhaps in bits and pieces over a period of time. The steel industry has been feeling better of late. Steel prices have been firming somewhat, and production has been rising for ten straight weeks. It now stands at 77% of capacity, due partly to strong demand from automakers and partly to hedge buying against the possibility of a steel strike this summer...
...things affect people; they do not have an obsession with always doing the "right thing," hoping that history will absolve them. Furthermore, all of them are politicians with a special touch for people. They have something more than the rather common ability to shake hands vigorously and say bland things to a disinterested electorate...
Newcomer Hedren bids fair to take her rightful place in the succession of Hitchcock Ice Princesses (bland, blonde predecessors: Eva Marie Saint, Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, Madeleine Carroll) if she can learn to register horror more convincingly before the cameras roll again. Veteran Ethel Grififies, as a sensible-shoed bird lover, provides a deft and daft counterpoint to the bird-damning villagers. But the most unforgettable performers in The Birds are the birds. They are utterly, terrifyingly believable as they go about their bloody business of murdering humanity. Pigeons loitering around the exits of theaters where this movie is shown...