Word: finespun
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Improper Propriety. When the writings of Confucius were first translated, the finespun fabric of his thought, delicate as Chinese silk and colored and varied as the hills of his native northeast, was ripped to shreds. The varied meanings summed up in the Chinese term li-a concept which in government meant order, in social life politeness and good manners, and, deeper than these, "the harmony in the soul which prompts action in accordance with true natural instincts"-were rendered by militant English missionaries as "propriety...
...readers: "Elizabeth and Sex by Lytton Scratchy, John Brown's Benny by Steve Brody, The Bridge of San Louis Bromfield by Ray Long, A Farewell to Farms by Mark van Doorman, How to be Happy: A Preface to Morons by Walter B. Pipkin, Pfui D., Tristram Coffin, a finespun obituary by Edwinson Arlington Cemetry, Black Majesty by Dark van Moron, The Life of Joseph Wood Peacock by his uncle Doc van Doren, and Training the Giant Pander by quaint old Trader van Horen." Concludes Satirist Wilson: "And there was also Granville van Arven and his League of American Vipers...
Twenty years ago Louis Golding was an orchidaceous Oxonian. After "going down" from the University he began to write novels that were so showily finespun, so self-consciously clever that they irritated many a reader. From there he went on to heavier chronicles of Jewish family life. His twelfth novel shows a further development: The Dance Goes On is almost a pure adventure story. Critics were sure this was a comedown, but common readers felt it was a decided improvement...
...gallows for holding his father-in-law's head in an oven with the gas turned on. Reginald Hicks insisted that his father-in-law turned on the gas and stuck his own head into the oven. But, as a result of the great sleuth's finespun deductions, Reginald Hicks was hanged by the neck until dead. Last week Sir Bernard Spilsbury left London for Brighton hailed by Britain's more sensational newsorgans as "Europe's greatest criminologist...
...This was his first visit to the U. S. Hitler's victims, if sufficiently presentable, are popular in Manhattan. Author Mann brings no topsy-turvy social message; even a banker is safe in his company. Though some of his books have been best-sellers in Germany, his finespun writing will never appeal to the U. S. masses. But the man-in-the-street, more than half right about the smokescreen, would have missed the coal of truth. This week's company of tail-coated diners were delighted to honor a prominent professional but they also represented a wider...