Word: doubletalk
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Cautious A.F.L. Boss William Green gave the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters a straight-talking guide to Communist doubletalk. Sample: "They are willing to promise you the moon to convert you into tools and catspaws. . . . The Communists do not want to see the anti-poll tax bill and the fair employment bill adopted. By placing themselves in the forefront of these measures, they knew they were helping to defeat them...
Died. Gertrude Stein, 72, grizzled matriarch of the stuttering sentence ("A rose is a rose is a rose") whose literary doubletalk was often as confusing as amusing, onetime medical student, connoisseur of modern art, author (Portraits and Prayers, Wars I Have Seen), playwright (Four Saints in Three Acts, Yes Is for a Very Young Man); of cancer, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Her emphasis on the sound, rather than the" sense, of words influenced many a writer. She considered herself the No. 1 figure in contemporary letters, was not shaken by Clifton Fadiman's snug phrase, "the Mamma...
...some characteristic doubletalk, Mohandas Gandhi had been vaguely optimistic. Speaking of the British long-range plan, he said recently: "There are two ways of looking at the statement. I believe in looking at the bright side. . . . It might be, however, that there is no bright side, but you will lose nothing by trusting." New Delhi's papers looked at the British mission in three ways, said goodbye with these headlines: Hindustan Times (Congress Party), "MISSION'S SUCCESS"; the Statesman (Tory British), "CONTRASTS"; Dawn (Jinnah's mouthpiece), "FAILURE OF A MISSION...
There was no veto to stop doubletalk...
...Smoking Gospel. Drums under the Windows is the third volume of Playwright O'Casey's autobiography (preceding volumes: I Knock at the Door, Pictures in the Hallway). Rambling, rhapsodic, episodic, it is written sometimes in straightaway English, sometimes in lyrical doubletalk like that of the earlier James Joyce. The subject is his grimmest, bitterest, pre-playwright years: the 15 years or so up to and including the 1916 Easter Week Rising. Like almost any good book written by a good Irishman about those days, Drums is at bottom sentimental and romantic, but the resemblance to the standard stops...