Word: codger
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...Codger. When the Sanitary Commission visited Lincoln, Strong found him "a barbarian, Scythian, yahoo, or gorilla in respect of outside polish," but also a man of "evident integrity and simplicity of purpose." From this visit Strong brought back a fine Lincoln story. Strong had asked Lincoln to pardon an imprisoned man. The papers for a pardon, replied Lincoln, "must be referred to the Attorney-General, but I guess it will be all right, for me and the Attorney-General's very chicken-hearted...
Like Fenimore Cooper, Strong was something of the professional old codger, the cultured curmudgeon who stands in fierce, often prejudiced judgment on his age. At times, as when he declares Americans "the windiest people extant" and deplores the inclination of democracies to undervalue great men, he resembles Alexis de Tocqueville (Democracy in America). And when he lambastes his native land for coarse materialism and imperialist forays ("Texas is annexed. I think I'll expatriate myself"), he anticipates Henry Adams. But what makes his diary good reading for Americans is its reflection of an individual mind which...
...Silver Whistle (by Robert McEnroe; produced by the Theatre Guild) tells how a spacious liar and accomplished charlatan rejuvenates an old folks' home. A 47-year-old hobo, Oliver Erwenter (José Ferrer) poses as a superbly virile codger of 77 and passes out to the men folk a magical aphrodisiac (actually, small bread pellets). He tells lordly yarns of foreign travel and female conquest; makes flamboyant love to a young lady employed at the home; and with a bit of help, swipes the equipment and supplies for a rousing charity bazaar. Though the truth about him gradually leaks...
...they've found some sort of peace here on the beach. Until we began ?o circulate among them with our books and magazines, there was an undeclared war constantly going on. One had built a 10 ft. fence to keep out prying passersby; one was a grouchy old codger who'd scare you with his growl; another read only the most violent detective magazines. Some of the women in the camp were groveling in True Confessions, living in a misty world of make-believe and dreaming of the day they'd be able to go back...
...codger was ailing. His legs hurt him more than ever. Last week, as he sat on his bed winding his big, old-fashioned watch, death came, suddenly and swiftly, to Walter Goodland...