Word: boner
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Probably NIMH's biggest boner was in trying to ignore the tranquilizing drugs. Its top brass are accused of being too Freudian ("Analytically oriented," as they put it) and scarcely interested in anything so humdrum as drugs for the mind. Instead of setting up rigidly controlled studies to evaluate the drugs, they appointed committees that belittled them. Last year Congress rammed $2,000,000 down NIMH's throat and ordered it to get going on a comprehensive tranquilizer evaluation. The work is hopefully scheduled to begin in July-only three years late...
...field has attracted fakers and incompetents. The classic boner was made by the experts who, in the 1920 depression, strongly advised G.M. to drop Chevrolet and quit the low-priced car business. Some consultants, concerned more with fees than duty, sidestep the job of giving unpleasant advice. One consultant spent three years at a troubled corporation, amassing a $600,000 fee and making numerous recommendations. But he avoided the only important one: fire the family management whose incompetence was the real cause of the trouble...
...authorized to handle run-of-the-mill mail. "But," said Benson, "as Secretary of Agriculture, I must take the responsibility for this, and I so do. Of course, the article as .reported to me by my staff does not in the slightest reflect my views. We pulled a boner on this one. I'm sorry...
Similarly, when Professor Buck announced the extension of Lamont hours to midnight, just one week after the Council had voted not to ask for extension except during reading period, many students chalked up one more boner for their Council. The organization dedicated to representing student opinion appeared less enterprising than the librarian in desiring to meet student demands. Though the Council's decision not to pressure for longer hours had resulted from careful consideration of previous year's figures, it hardly showed initiative...
...chief regrets now are for the lost opportunities to fill out presidential foursomes at bridge and golf. On a campaign trip in 1952, Candidate Eisenhower invited Darby to play a rubber of bridge, but Darby pretended that he did not play. "I was certain I'd pull some boner that would forever mark me in Ike's book as a man not to be trusted," he says. Last year, during Ike's last Denver vacation, the chance came to play golf with the President. "I had to decline," Darby explains ruefully, "because it just happened that...