Word: curtness
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...part-time model displayed a steely quality before the committee, interrupting some questioners and reeling off a well-practiced "I don't recall." While cameras clicked, Hall sat pertly at the table, often whispering to her lawyer and punctuating her answers with a curt "sir" stapled at the end. When Maine's Republican Senator William Cohen said he did not think North was entitled to a grant of immunity in exchange for his testimony, Hall objected. "I think that Colonel North is first a U.S. citizen and he has the same rights that you yourself do, sir." Surprised, Cohen paused...
...Threepenny Opera. Unfortunely, Opera collaborator Kurt Weill was long gone when Brecht wrote this play, so director Serban commissioned hip New York composer Elizabath Swados to score Brecht's songs. Some of her past work like Runaways, has been pretty vile, but in Good Woman some of her curt, antimelodic songs are pretty fair substitutes for Weill. This is less laziness on Swados's part, I think, than the fact that Weill's music was the perfect accompaniment to Brecht's cynical, plebian lyrics...
...amused by the Soviet show, President Reagan first responded to questions about the U.S. bugging with a curt comment: "If you want to believe them, go ahead." Headed for a vacation in California, he added, "I cannot and will not comment on United States intelligence activities." Turning angry, Reagan insisted, "What the Soviets did to our embassy in Moscow is outrageous...
...care especially. Technology has brought great improvements in curative powers, but patients wish they could get more attention from their doctors rather than being seen mostly by nurses and technicians. Says Victoria Leonard, executive director of the National Women's Health Network: "We see doctors not answering questions, giving curt answers, not spending enough time with patients. Years ago a doctor was more of a family adviser. Now medicine tends to attract the person who enjoys the high-tech procedures. Almost by definition, that's not a people person...
...when Paris Review editors send John Barth a check and additional questions to beef up a woefully brief interview, the author of the 800-page The Sot-Weed Factor returns the emolument with a curt note: "It doesn't displease me to hear that our interview will be perhaps the shortest one you've run. In fact, it's a bit shorter now than it was before (enclosed). Better not run it by me again...