Word: detract
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Only one of Jonathan Cott's selections is disappointing. "Wanted--A King" reads like a cramped collage of Mother Goose rhymes. The author writes too stiffly and her familiar characters--Jack Horner and Mother Hubbard--detract from the narrative's originality. Unfortunately, this tale reinforces the "quaint" stereotype of children's literature with annoying passages on the order of: "She was most devoted to any baby; she loved the whole baby race, as every girl should do, and, in fact, as every right-minded girl does...
MOST UNWORTHY SUSPICION: That with all this going on, the producers would go out and hire a streaker to hype the proceedings. Why should such doubts, even if well founded, detract from the evening's liveliest and most deeply felt appearance...
...before and after each composition. Although musicologically correct, this was weak dramatically. The antiphons were violently anticlimactic coming as they did, after the most elaborate polyphony. In theory, it might seem a powerful contrast to repeat them at the end of each section; but in practice, it could only detract from a concert performance...
...keep an open mind on impeachment." The release of the Doar letter to St. Clair, protested Texas Democrat Jack Brooks, was "an affront to the comity between the White House and the Congress." But he urged his colleagues on the committee not to let "the White House hucksterism detract from the decency and forbearance of the committee. It is clear that the White House is not going to cooperate...
...script's inadequacies don't detract much from Ceremonies's poignancy. Russell's elder son challenges Adele, who disapproves of the illicit whiskey business...