Word: bumptiousness
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DIED. REG SMYTHE, 80, industrious British cartoonist who sketched the ne'er-do-well Andy Capp for more than 40 years; in Hartlepool, England. It was a comic strip sprung from the heart: Smythe patterned the beer-guzzling, bumptious bloke and his long-suffering wife Flo on his parents. Although Capp spoke in the vernacular of working-class northern England, his chatter had universal appeal, enlivening the funny pages in dozens of countries...
...bumptious codger Barney Panofsky of Barney's Version (Knopf; 368 pages; $25) is more than a familiar Richler hero. He is the author's fullest expression of the type: a pleasure-loving scoundrel with a generous romantic streak and a gift that can turn schmoozing into literature. Barney makes his sizable living producing Canadian-content TV series like McIver of the RCMP ("big on bonking scenes in canoes and igloos"). He calls his company Totally Unnecessary Productions, a name that flaunts his self-loathing but, more important, pre-empts the scorn of his artistic betters...
...attorneys general, Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell--all were so vexed by Flynt's verbal and pictorial provocations, they just had to sue him. One offended reader took a few rifle shots at the Great Satan of Columbus, Ohio, forever paralyzing some of Flynt's favorite body parts. The bumptious pornographer made friends with Jimmy Carter's evangelist sister, went nuts on painkillers and won a crucial First Amendment ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. All in all, a wonderful life...
...language skill, anonymous Chinese face and bumptious adventuring helped her catch on in Beijing as a reporter for the New York Times; years later, after working for papers in North America, she returned to China as a correspondent for the Toronto Globe and Mail. She was still in love with China but not with the gangsters who ran it, and her account of the Tiananmen Square rebellion and massacre is not just good reporting; it is eloquent, hard-earned history. High levels of both foolishness and good sense, in that order, are necessary for a really fine youthful memoir...
...Beijing University along with minders assigned to ensure her political purity. To the horror of her fellow students, she clamored to experience the nobility of manual labor, and eventually was allowed to serve at a Beijing tool factory, pretending to make lathes. Her language skill, anonymous Chinese face and bumptious adventuring helped her catch on in Beijing as a reporter for the New York Times; years later, after working for papers in North America, she returned to China as a correspondent for the Toronto Globe and Mail. She was still in love with China, but not with the gangsters...