Word: dourness
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Mono Lisa's Smile. From his briefcase dour West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer produced a pile of secret German intelligence documents describing the military build-up of Russia and its satellites; he listed fact & figure evidence of "the tragic disparity" between Eastern power and Western ability to resist it. "I have been watching these things for many years," warned Adenauer, "and I must say there has never been a threat so great from the East. There is no time to lose...
After barely three months in office, Greece's bald, immaculate and dour new Premier, Marshal Alexander Papagos, had reason to be optimistic last week. Items...
...have seen some unusual exhibits lately-churches in flames, frolicking priests, transparent cats gorged on mice and flowers. But last week's show topped them all. Gallery Owner Gaspero del Corso had reached out to Belgium and brought back 28 paintings by an old surrealist funnyman, Brussels' dour little René Magritte (TIME. June 21, 1948). For Romans, it was a first good look at Magritte's sleepy fantasies. Del Corso's enthusiastic verdict: "They are scandalized...
Since they disagree on almost everything else, many Frenchmen disagreed with M. Mauriac's dour outlook. What was more striking in France last week, however, was that more & more Frenchmen were beginning to agree on one of the major causes of their chronic parliamentary crises. The cause: the constitution of the Fourth Republic, which came into force in 1946 and since has spawned 15 consecutive governments ranging in health from sickly to stillborn. So long as the constitution remains unchanged, Frenchmen are beginning to realize, premiers and cabinets are bound to come & go with distressing frequency...
Another short poem by Ziegler--who does very well at this--and a well-written but tedious account of a fox hunt from the fox's eyes lead the reader to the last two stories, both of which are rather mis-begotten efforts. One is about a dour Maine lobsterman who waits patiently for his father's death to be willed his fishing boat only to have the will leave the boat's engine to his uncle. This is hardly an intrinsically amusing situation...