Word: charms
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Sweetness" was a word scorned by muscular America. It became "charm." And that is what T.R.'s fifth cousin Franklin Roosevelt was all about, says James Rowe, the Washington lawyer who at 28 became F.D.R.'s executive assistant. Franklin made people like him and want to please him. At their first meeting in the Oval Office, Roosevelt threw his head back, beamed up at Rowe and said, "Jim, I want your advice." Rowe was captive for life...
During his two years in office, Ronald Reagan also has turned charm into power. Critics would contend it is the only thing sustaining his presidency. They may be right. Charm is a cousin once removed to style, which was one of John Kennedy's renowned qualities. Both go deeper than clothes and Irish stories...
...recent Gridiron dinner, the President appeared onstage in a sombrero and sang a ditty in his uncertain baritone. The cold-eyed journalists leaped to their feet to cheer. "That's charm," said one of Reagan's close friends. A fortnight ago, House Speaker Tip O'Neill called a cease-fire in the budget war and asked Reagan up for lunch to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Reagan readily accepted. For a few hours there was nothing but sweetness. The next day they were back beating each other's brains out. Says O'Neill: "Away...
...looks straight at you, gives you an eager handshake, always smiles, and it is obviously an honest expression," says a diplomat. For the tune he is with you, claims one of Reagan's closest friends, "he really is interested in you." Simple but powerful. Charm alone cannot reorder the world, but it seems to go further than many thought possible...
Such minor infusions of relevance, though, aren't enough to stop the momentum of the comedy, which hurtles on with all Monty Python's ludicrous charm. When Cleese and Graham Chapman start mugging at the camera, the material they're acting becomes supremely irrelevant. When Terry Jones dresses up as an old crone this time as a sort of Mother Hubbard, dancing and singing with her 90 ragged children--he she looks exactly like 39 other Jones crones from Holy Grail or earlier. And fortunately, the gag is just as ridiculous the fortieth time around. There must be some deeper...