Word: endless
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...best, the rearing of children is a fascinating and rewarding occupation. But at worst, the mopping up of spilled food and the changing of diapers are menial labor of the lowest sort, dirty, boring, wearying and endless. The housewife gets no salary, no promotions, no titles, no formal evidence that the maintenance of family life is, as Jimmy Carter said in his Inaugural Address, "the basis of our society." The only thing that makes it bearable is constant reassurance that the best does go along with the worst, but the housewife has never had too much of that reassurance...
...federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare. There are the reports on reports on reports. There are the file cabinets stuffed with manila folders being wheeled aimlessly from room to room. There are the rows and columns of identical desks equipped with identical chairs. The officials have endless meetings and conferences and appointments. The staffers debate which color pen is appropriate for which report. The secretaries discuss where to file the reports. If someone is sick the flow of work goes on to all appearances unchanged around the empty desk. To disregard a novel as part of a fringe genre...
...France, the guillotine dispatches condemned criminals. In Britain, it is a device designed to cut off endless parliamentary debate-much as cloture is used in the U.S. Congress. Begun in the 1880s to combat the obstructionist tactics of Irish Nationalist Charles Parnell and his colleagues, the guillotine has been a welcome procedure for circumventing parliamentary bottlenecks. But when employed prematurely to close off debate on major, hotly contested legislation, it can stir up the wrath of M.P.s on both sides of the floor. Last week Prime Minister James Callaghan's Labor government ran into just that kind of resistance...
Bilateral Talks. Following its humiliating defeat, the government announced plans to hold bilateral talks with the opposition parties to see if any means could be found to save the devolution bill. But the vote seemed to consign the measure either to endless debate (only three of its 116 clauses had been considered in eleven days of discussion) or eventual abandonment for this session of Parliament. It drastically undercut Labor's position with Scottish voters and, though not a vote of confidence, raised the question of the Labor Party's ability to govern. For the first time since Prime...
Caesar and Cleopatra is afflicted by the mummy's curse. Despite two or three of the best scenes in the Shavian canon, the play itself may be unworkable: lines by Shaw but construction by Rube Goldberg. Offstage there are battles, mob scenes and the endless clumping of Roman legions. Onstage there are only words; even in this finger exercise for Pygmalion Shaw seemed to be heading toward what he later called playwriting as a "platonic exercise...