Word: curmudgeon
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Such declarations give Naipaul the appearance of a political curmudgeon. But, he says with some surprise, "I don't think that way. People turn things around. I'm for individual rights and for law." It is a long view that includes his fascination with ancient Rome ("I can barely express my admiration for it") and the imperial record of the English. Their achievement calls forth some of his best bis: "Pretty terrific. It would be churlish to say otherwise. It would be foolish to say otherwise. It would be unhistorical to say otherwise...
That did not satisfy some critics. In Congress the unlikely alliance of New York Representative Stephen Solarz, a highly liberal Democrat, and North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, the curmudgeon of the Republican right, is pushing a bill that would compel the Administration, if the situation worsens, to stop all transfers of high-technology goods to China, suspend all investment and trade, recall Ambassador James Lilley and try to persuade international bodies such as the World Bank to cease making loans to China. Administration officials gloomily acknowledge that they may be driven to such steps if hard-line rulers in Beijing...
Notes from retiring Secretary of Education William Bennett on Cabinet service, achieving and maintaining capital curmudgeon status, and the debilitating effects of cold salmon after sundown...
...might be expected, Kennedy's case-by-case approach stirs neither great enthusiasm nor dead-end opposition in the Senate. Jesse Helms, North Carolina's conservative curmudgeon, once growled, "No way, Jose," at the prospect of Kennedy's nomination. But last week he allowed that Kennedy might make a "fine" Justice. Liberals are mostly being noncommittal, but they will have trouble taking back their comments during the Bork fight, when some identified Kennedy as the type of conservative they could accept. Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, who helped lead the opposition against Bork, describes Kennedy as "decent instead of dogmatic...
...some 20 books of collected short pieces, Perelman offered a unique amalgam of elegant phrase and pratfall comedy. Behind each one was the carefully drawn self-portrait of a curmudgeon, skewering the pretentious, detonating popular culture and putting backspin on cliches ("Jigwise, all is up"). The role of sulfurous commentator was not a disguise. Don't Tread on Me proves that the life story of Perelman was the adventures of Mr. Hyde and Mr. Hyde. Early on he decided that Will Rogers' statement "I never met a man I didn't like" was "pure flatulence, crowd-pleasing and fake humility...