Word: down-playing
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...abrasive charm of basic good ole boys or the Kennedys' strident boyos. Nobody in Plains was exactly sure why Jimmy stayed away, but there were theories: possible embarrassment at Billy's high jinks, displeasure at the crude local commercialism, or maybe even advice from his pollsters to down-play the small-town Southern roots in favor of a homogenized national image. Certainly a home visit was a summons to pushing crowds, at least half newsmen; and resident family members found it increasingly impossible to appear downtown. (Miss Lillian: "They all wanted to touch me, and if there...
...Gennaro was dropped from the Vatican's official church calendar in 1969, along with St. Christopher and some other saints whose existence was in doubt. Since then Cardinal Ursi, who is Archbishop of Naples, has been trying to down-play the celebration. Among other things, he has persuaded the congregation to refrain from roaring its approval when the liquid bubbles. But recently, a new encyclopedia labeled the San Gennaro spectacle a "residue of paganized Christianity which the church has not managed to remove from Neapolitan usage...
...getting into Vietnam again. But the same can be done in reference to China or in our response to foreign crisis anywhere. We are institutionally set up in such a way that we up-play the short-term crisis decision, the command decision for meeting the emergency, and we down-play the long-term planning. In spite of all the paperwork that passes and all the contracts that are made with researchers and all the fads in various buildings, we don't have a long-term program which is a dominant guideline to what we do. This is a part...