Word: focal
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...focal character of most Thurber-prose and drawings is a reticent, befuddled, thwarted little man who tries sadly to preserve himself and his reason against a practically worldwide onslaught. Grim psychiatrists, gadgets that "whir and whine and whiz," erratic servants, domineering women, unfriendly dogs, ghosts, foreigners -all are in league to crush the Thurber Male. This harried biped, like Joyce's Leopold Bloom or Mann's Hans Castorp, represents 20th-century Man. To Thurber's devotees, who rate him the greatest U.S. humorist since Mark Twain, his blankly exaggerated reports of their own qualms and misadventures...
There were dozens of instances of friendliness: Ray Sato, a 27-year-old Nisei from Hood River, focal point of Oregon racial intolerance, received 30 reassuring letters from former neighbors when he decided to go home. When Bruce McGill, a wealthy Sierra Madre (Calif.) businessman, ran an anti-Japanese newspaper advertisement, he found himself virtually ostracized by other citizens, who promptly ran a second ad, welcoming evacuees...
Hollywood Canteen (Warner). It was Warner Bros.' idea that in this picture about Hollywood's focal point of patriotism-in-person, stars of all studios should forget their differences and twinkle at each other in the friendliest of spirits. The refusal of the other studios to see it their way had much to do with Warners' withdrawal from the Hays Office. The effect on the picture has been, on the whole, unfortunate. Unable to make it clear that the Canteen is an all-Hollywood affair, Warner Bros, has gone rather more than all out the other...
...wedges the Americans had been able to hold in the Monschau-Malmédy-Stavelot area and to the west of Saint-Vith. But they were perilous triangular salients. Lieut. General Courtney H. Hodges' First Army had apparently stopped the spearhead closest to Liège, focal point of U.S. supplies...
Lady Mendl, eightyish, ageless, international smart-setter, predicted great things for her wartime home, Hollywood. Said she: "Hollywood is the new kingdom of youth and ambition. . . . This is the new focal point of civilization. .. . Among the kings and queens of the future, the stars of Hollywood will be prominently enthroned...