Word: captiousness
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Churchmen who visited last week's preview were somewhat captious. They listened to five selections by Westminster Choir, a solo by a Miss Lorene Hodap, a scripture reading by Dr. Erdman, a sermon by Dr. Poling defending present-day Youth. Studio atmosphere was reverent: some smoked before, but none during the showing. Afterwards, a few clergymen criticized the choir: it sang too well, over-balancing the rest of the program, and there were too many close-ups of comely Westminster choir girls. Lipstick was apparent. One gentleman observed a glaring omission: there was no prayer! Hastily Promoter Rodeheaver...
...translated from the original texts, result of some six years of labor by five able savants.* Secular in appearance but convenient to the eye are its single-column pages, dialog in quotation marks, with subtitles and paragraph headings; verse numbers are set in the margins. Its advertised modernity caused captious critics to hunt up expressions which are not current in the U. S. A Chicago reader, for example, found "footpad" (see below) and triumphed briefly until it was discovered that the Chicago Tribune currently uses the word...
...better than her implicit word: if she does not hold you breathless, she never lets you nod. And when you have finished her unspectacular narrative you may be somewhat surprised to realize that you have been living human history. Willa Cather's Northeast passages are never purple. Captious critics might complain that she sometimes simplifies too far, that her people are sometimes so one-sided as to be simply silly, that she sometimes, for one who can write like an angel, gives a fair imitation of poor Poll: "When Pierre had made a landing and tied his boat, they...
...seem that generalities have been dealt with at the expense of a detailed criticism, and that I have been unduly captious. The reason for this is the sincere disappointment felt that one of the best theatrical organizations in America could do no better with a play which has intrinsic qualities of dramatic strength and romance, if I may use the word. It seems only fair for the public to expect a polished and finished production under such circumstances. And, by the same token, it is most unfortunate for them to spend money and time on such a piece of intellectual...
...Hoover. The acreage-reduction scheme was belittled on the ground that a smaller crop at a higher price wo'uld not put more money in the planter's pocket, that a 100 acres of 60? wheat is the same as 50 acres of $1.20 wheat. A more captious, unfair cry was that Chairman Legge, onetime head of International Harvester Co., wanted to reduce U. S. farm production so foreign husbandmen could make big crops, buy more U. S. agricultural implements. Department of Commerce figures were adduced showing farm implement exports for the first six months of 1930 were...