Word: captious
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...first volume of Schlesinger's memoirs, "A Life in the 20th Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950" (Houghton Mifflin; 557 pages; $28.95), is a rich, spirited performance. Schlesinger moves energetically down the years, meeting everyone worth meeting, dispensing opinions (sometimes brilliant, sometimes merely partisan and captious, sometimes dead wrong, as when, early on, he pronounces Harry Truman to be a corrupt mediocrity). T. S. Eliot wrote, "The trilling wire in the blood sings beneath inveterate scars,/ Appeasing long forgotten wars...
...people. He flicks his eyes like high beams at an adversary; he speaks in an accent all his own. In quarters where "elitist" is the dirtiest word in the English language, Buckley's very existence (the Bach, the ocean sailing) is a provocation. But only the captious would miss the coherence and steadfastness of Buckley's thought and work over many years. I was surprised yesterday when I read a new book of essays on America by a British journalist named Martin Walker. Walker accuses Buckley of being "self-indulgent." If Walker will explain how the word "self-indulgent...
...some people succeed, and some not? The answer may seem obvious. Jim Hightower, the liberal humorist from Texas, said the elder George Bush "was born on third base, and thought he'd hit a triple." A funny crack, but captious. Teddy Roosevelt and his brother Elliott were born to the same privilege. Sickly Teddy overcame and gloriously prospered. Elliott, the golden boy (and father of Eleanor), died an alcoholic disgrace...
...some people succeed, and some not? The answer may seem obvious. Jim Hightower, the liberal humorist from Texas, used to say that the elder George Bush "was born on third base, and thought he'd hit a triple." A funny crack, but captious. Teddy Roosevelt and his brother Elliott were both born to the same privilege. Sickly Teddy overcame, and gloriously prospered. Elliott, the golden boy (and father of Eleanor), died an alcoholic disgrace in his early thirties...
...Oops. What we meant to say was nocturnal emission. In all seriousness, scathing reviews and other such captious eruptions are a thing of the past. A number of personnel intersections leaves us hard up to talk down. As a result, groovy train is proud to offer a wide selection of Harvard-produced publications for your reading pleasure. In their own words...