Word: dourness
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...started with Lette and other female friends including J.K. Rowling hiding, giggling, behind Downing Street's formal furnishings. But as a scion of his nation's Calvinist tradition and the son of a Church of Scotland Minister, Brown grew up marinated in duty - which has perhaps contributed to the dour image the British press has long bestowed...
...were another story. By 1989 the Ratti business had gone public, but despite Signor Ratti's attempt to branch out?adding jerseys, silk blends and facilities specializing in yarn-dyed silks?it was tough for a company famous for ebullient prints to thrive in a decade devoted to dour black...
...credit to the filmmakers that the movie’s didacticism doesn’t feel unbearably contrived while it’s happening. The depiction of Mexican life, on both sides of the border, is rich and spirited, saving the movie from the danger of being too dour about its characters’ hardships. Carlitos’ journey progresses with adequate believability, and the minor Mexican characters that move in and out of Carlitos’ life are, realistically, good-hearted enough to be trusted. But then the Big Message awkwardly forces its way into the movie. When David...
...founder of the National Review, Buckley lent an intellectual conscience and a new energy to a conservative movement that had long been wallowing in dour irrelevance. His greatest achievement was to serve as the demiurgic force behind the emerging conservative coalition of the 1960s and 70s, unifying Goldwater libertarianism with ardent anti-communism and the remnants of the conservative old guard. The crowning achievement of his project, of course, was the messianic rise and eventual election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency...
...torture. Government malfeasance. Crappy health care. Not to mention one young star who shouldn't be dead, Heath Ledger, and one who might've been, Owen Wilson. (He showed up to read an intro.) Surrounded by these dour subjects, Stewart did his best to keep the tone light. He alluded to the town's relief over the end of the writers' strike by saying, "Welcome to the make-up sex." He confided to the viewing audience what the crowd at the Kodak Theatre does during commercial breaks: "Mostly we sit here making catty remarks about how you look at home...