Word: briskness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...churned up the North Atlantic waves last week, the Icelandic gunboat Thor headed for a covey of British fishing trawlers that had moved into a forbidden conservation area. Guarding the trawlers, the British frigate Yarmouth kept close cover on Thor. While both vessels were running closely abreast at a brisk 16 knots, one of them-the accounts differ-veered toward the other. Warning blasts were sounded, engines were thrown full astern. It was too late. Yarmouth's bow sliced into Thor, ripping away the starboard wing of the gunboat's bridge...
...last week he may have found his format. Of all things, it was the budget. He walked through its corridors of forbidding figures with brisk confidence. He expertly handled hours of briefings for officials and newsmen. He rarely had to refer to his notes or call on his aides. Ford not only knew his budget, he felt it, found romance in the balance sheets. There was a kind of boardroom eloquence about the President in this environment, moving from table to chart, talking of dollars and sense. Even those who disagree philosophically with Ford admitted that he had done...
This anecdote is one of the more outrageous tales that British-born Archaeologist Brian Fagan records in this brisk and knowledgeable history of the plunder of Egypt. But it was only one of thousands of depredations, many carried out on a much grander scale. During the reign of Pasha Mohammed Ali (1805-1849), for example, one-quarter of the great Temple of Dendereh was quarried away by Egyptians to build a saltpeter factory. Ali also ordered the excavation of the exquisite Temple of Esneh because he wanted to use it as a secure munitions depot. Art collectors were scarcely better...
...looting and destruction of Egyptian temples continued down through the centuries. Early Christians, anxious to eliminate residual paganism along the Nile, smashed many monuments. Medieval Europeans created a brisk market for mummy, the bituminous substance used in mummification, which was thought to have a medicinal value...
Here is Tiepolo's delight in wide, airy high space working as effectively in a brisk pen-and-wash sketch as on a Venetian ceiling...