Word: blockheaded
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...office at the Center for International Affairs. It is filled with a wall-and-a-half of books and journals on Latin American politics--but the wall above his desk is reserved for a poster of Lucy, the character from the comic strip "Peanuts," shouting, "Vote for the blockhead of your choice...
...anyone objects to Jimmy Breslin's statement [July 2] that "The No. 1 reason any professional writes is to pay the bills," he should be informed that Dr. Samuel Johnson put it even more strongly (on April 5, 1776) when he said, "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money." Boswell disagreed, but perhaps some feel that he is still covered by Johnson's claim...
Freelancing has never been the gentlest of callings. Samuel Johnson in his 1755 Dictionary immortalized the ink-stained wretches who lived on London's Grub Street turning out literary piecework. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money," said Dr. Johnson, who nonetheless spent most of his life in poverty. In the platinum age of periodicals, roughly from the 1920s to the 1950s, it was possible for man to live by word alone, provided he sold it to a magazine. The Saturday Evening Post, Look, Collier's, LIFE, Woman's Home Companion and Coronet routinely...
Sharp Spikes. The sideshow barkers extolled their wares: "Miss Delilah, the girl who thrives on electricity and smiles when we push the switch on her very own electric chair," and "El Diablo, the king of fire, the human volcano," and "the human blockhead who loves to pound large sharp spikes and razor-tipped awls into his skull...
...another side of Trudeau also began to emerge. He grew imperious in his dealings with the Commons, openly sneered at members who disagreed with him (favorite asides: "dope," "blockhead," "fool"). He seemed at times to become equally disdainful of the electorate. He tended to lecture rather than orate. While staffers groaned, he announced last fall that he would not campaign in his first re-election bid. Instead, he would hold "conversations with Canadians" on important issues...