Word: charlatan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...meet a kaleidoscopic whirl of characters: scientist grandparents who invent an Inconsumable Taco to end Mexican hunger, man-eating apocalyptic coyotes, and Machiavellian politicians who hide microchips in sugar to read opponents’ minds over morning coffee. Christopher’s voice leaps in style from snake oil charlatan to coke addict to dyspeptic political pundit. A prenatal savant, he fires off puns and bawdy jokes with a facility alternately Shakespearean and sophomoric. While the narrator never loses steam—sentences regularly stretch over one hundred words—readers might occasionally wish he’d pause...
Standing underneath a new Crayola Crayon ceiling fan, suffocated by freshly-painted pastel walls, I had a great urge to tell this charlatan that the “Morgan” etched into the nightstand was referring to me, that she should count herself lucky to be sleeping in my old bed, and, most importantly, that she was to vacate the premises immediately—if not sooner. Unfortunately, I resisted and have spent the last two weeks as a displaced person, enduring restless nights on the living room couch...
...19th century conjurer-hypnotist, played by Bergman repertory player and Exorcist priest Max Von Sydow, traveling throughout shadowy Sweden along with his troupe of repertory performers. After falling into the hands of a grand inquisitor, a doctor decides it his professional responsibility to expose Sydow as a charlatan and the two sides clash in a brilliantly evocative philosophical duel between art and science, rationality and irrationality, believer and non believer. It all climaxes in a beautifully destructive sequence that reduces the once proud doctor to his bare parts. At The Brattle Theater...
...lead a congregation than join one. In a 1978 letter, he argues with a California pastor about the divinity of Jesus: "[E]ither he was what he said he was or he was the world's greatest liar. It is impossible for me to believe a liar or charlatan could have had the effect on mankind that he has had for 2000 years. We could ask, would even the greatest of liars carry his lie through the crucifixion, when a simple confession would have saved him? ... Did he allow us the choice you say that you and others have made...
...aides have been promoting a team of exiles led by Iraqi National Congress boss Ahmed Chalabi, 58, a former businessman, to control the interim authority. They view Chalabi as a reliable democrat in a nation of Saddam followers. But State, backed by CIA officials, says Chalabi is a charlatan who hasn't lived in Iraq since 1958 and has no constituency there. This group favors waiting to see which new forces emerge...