Word: finnish
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...prizewinning furniture, which would probably raise no cheers in Grand Rapids, was a plywood table and chair with rod-thin, chrome-plated legs. They were designed by California's solemn, earnest Charles Eames, 39, onetime pupil of famed Finnish modernist Eliel Saarinen. Eames, who designed molded plywood splints for the Navy during the war, is a man who believes that utility is beauty's only garment. He finds the kitchen and bathroom the most beautiful rooms in most U.S. homes. By the same token, Designer Eames explains, "when a chair is comfortable it becomes beautiful...
Noting Zhdanov's new duties and honors, the handicappers who try to figure who will win the race as Stalin's successor now believe that Zhdanov is back in form, after a severe strain to his reputation in the Finnish war; they rate Zhdanov just after Molotov, which is very good going for a man who 15 years ago was so little known in Communist politics that he did not even get his name in the Soviet Encyclopedia...
...months Zhdanov turned his distrust in another direction. As boss of Leningrad, he was acutely conscious of a danger he saw from nearby Finland. His fear led him into the one great boner of his career: he persuaded Stalin that the Finns would collapse easily. After the courageous Finnish defense ended that delusion, Stalin made a somber crack to Zhdanov: "So things are going normally on the Finnish front, huh? Well, when the Finns get to Bologoe [halfway between Moscow and Leningrad], let me know...
Zhdanov's Finnish disgrace was a delight to his rival Molotov. One anecdote of the period tells how Zhdanov was talking to Stalin in the latter's office in the Kremlin. The phone rang. It was Molotov. Stalin talked to him for some five minutes, but Stalin's part of the conversation consisted in saying "yes, yes, yes" while Zhdanov sweated visibly. Finally, just before he hung up, Stalin said "no, no." Stalin glanced up at Zhdanov, who was looking relieved, and said: "Don't be too happy. He just asked me whether I was having...
...After the war, in token that he had been forgiven for the Finnish fiasco, Zhdanov was made head of the Finnish Control Commission. Finns expected the worst, but Zhdanov is too hardheaded to bear a grudge. At Helsinki's airport a glum honor guard of Finns was lined up to meet him. Said Zhdanov in Finnish, "Hyvää päivää pojat" (Hello, boys). The soldiers stood stonily for a long Finnish moment, then grinned back and said, almost in chorus: "Hyvää päivää Kenraali" (Hello, General...