Word: blanded
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...exciting aspect of this literary event is the story of how Kent Stowell of the Pacific Northwest Ballet convinced a reluctant Sendak to design a new production of the ballet. The familiar stage version is not Hoffmann at all, but rather a hybrid based largely upon Alexander Dumas's bland synthesis of Hoffmann's novella. Sendax became interested in the Nutcracker, when he learned that Stowell intended to crack the old Dumas chestnut with Hoffmann's stronger Nutcracker. The Seattle production was a great success. The triumphant ballet complements the publication of this first adequate and wonderful translation...
...creature of formula writing, whose intent may be simplification but whose consequence is too often mystification. That mystification is compounded by ethnic, religious, political and other groups that have lobbied their attitudes and taboos into texts. In Maryland, Tom Sawyer no longer says "honest injun." Just "honest." And the bland Watergate reference from McGraw-Hill's fifth-grade social-studies textbook United States is a result of the almost universal avoidance of controversy in textbooks...
Lugar, buttoned-down and a bit bland, is a capable organization man who may be the second choice of Senate Republicans. If Dole might be too assertive as majority leader, the low-key Lugar could be too deferential. Elected to the Senate in 1976, he is a relative newcomer. It seems apropos that Stevens, a 14-year veteran, is majority whip: his opinions tend to be plain and angrily expressed. "I've got a temper," he confesses, "and I know how to use it!" The New Right would pick McClure, a Senator since 1973, who shares their ultraconservatism...
...spectacular colorlessness cannot be attributed to her lack of talent alone. Director Jeannot Szwarc, with the blood of "Jaws II" already on his hands, is carrying out his own niche as a hatchetman of promising sequels. Given a cast of the most talented hams in Hollywood, he squeezes as bland a performance as possible from each one. Dunaway is left to rehash the residue of her Joan Crawfordisms from "Mommy Dearest," charging through some genuinely funny lines with the comic timing...
...election are safe. One who is not, however, is Washington's John Spellman, 57, a Republican. In that state's nonpartisan primary in September, so many Republicans crossed over to vote for Democrat Booth Gardner, 48, the little-known chief executive of Pierce County, that the bland, cautious Spellman wound up with a mere 27% of the total vote. The latest polls show Gardner, a crisp administrator with a Harvard M.B.A., running 17% ahead of Spellman. The Governor has taken to shrill attacks on his opponent, charging Gardner with being a "shill of labor" who left his county...