Word: cushion
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Died. P. (for Philip) Hal Sims, 62, hulking (6 ft. 4 in., 300 Ibs.) contract bridge expert; after a heart attack; in Havana. Sims took up the game in the '20s, after thrice winning the National Amateur three-cushion billiards championship, matched an uncanny card sense with a ruthless application of psychology and technical skill to become one of the world's outstanding players. A longtime rival of Culbertson, Sims was a born sportsman and amateur gambler (whist, golf, poker, tennis, horses), once played 59 straight hours of bridge...
...handicap: it has had to get along without its own theaters, which older, richer studios have found to be a cushion against bad pictures and production losses. Now, with the Federal Government winning its campaign to force bigger companies to divorce production from theater ownership, E.L.'s experience in licking the handicap has a chance of turning into an advantage...
...almost every game, someone tried to bring off the difficult "boast shot". It called for the geometric precision of a three-cushion billiard shot, the ball caroming sharply from one side wall to the other and dropping dead off the front one. Properly executed, it is one of the most difficult shots in squash racquets to return. (An impossible shot to return: a "nick," which hits at the floor-line of one of the side or back walls and rolls out with no bounce...
...double exposure of the precious and the provincial, a caricature of manners and a comedy of airs, Make Way for Lucia is as full of gentility and small jabs as an old-fashioned pin cushion. Some of it is pleasant fun; virtually all of it gains from Mr. van Druten's deft and mannerly use of E. F. Benson's yellowing Lucia novels, and from the amusing exaggerations of a capable cast. What cuts down on the fun in Lucia is the too-great sameness of the cutting-up. The fun itself tends to be pretty thin...
Royal Displeasure. The whole Palace was in fine fettle. Throughout the ceremony King George rested his ailing foot on a cushion, but he limped not at all, exchanged jokes on all sides and refused to sit down during the official picture taking. Old Mrs. Bill, who had been the palace housekeeper when George himself was a baby, bussed the King enthusiastically on the cheek and he returned the greeting in kind...