Word: foil
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...meticulously drawn portrait shows Lady Dalkeith robed in pink, with matching nail polish, even has slivers of tin foil glittering among her painted diamonds. The academicians think that it illustrates their goal of acting "as a steadying influence on the haste or extravagancy of innovators"-i.e., the pattern-conscious "kitchen sink" school of art. Lord Attlee found Merton's painting "awfully jolly," but art critics disdained it as mere "craftsmanship." Flooded with commissions, Merton rejoined: "I only paint beautiful women, children and angels...
...this work, notwithstanding all the criticism of Brahms' orchestral form as too thick or unimaginative, needs an orchestra for many reasons, as the substitution of an organ, as in Sunday's performance, made painfully clear. The instrumental effects, such as pizzicato, used as a foil to the voices; the tonal texture of different groups of instruments; and the all-pervading crescendo and diminuendo which is so essential--all these are impossible for an organist...
...Grey Tin-Foil. Not all readers will agree that Dr. No, which Macmillan will publish in the U.S. in July, is magnificent writing, but pages of it, at least, qualify for Ezra Pound's classic comment on Tropic of Cancer: "At last, an unprintable book that is readable." Secret Agent Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate some mysterious goings-on on a neighboring island. His unknown foes promptly plant a six-inch venomous centipede in his bed ("Bond could feel it nuzzling at his skin. It was drinking! Drinking the beads of salt sweat!"). Bond gets...
...sort of rich man's Fu Manchu, Dr. No is one of the less forgettable characters in modern fiction. He is 6 ft. 6, and looks like "a giant venomous worm wrapped in grey tin-foil." For hands he has "articulated steel pincers," which he habitually taps against his contact lenses, making a "dull ting." Dr. No's hobby is torture ("I am interested in pain"). Bond survives Dr. No's inventive obstacle course from electric shocks to octopus hugs, buries his tormentor alive under a small mountain of guano, and rescues the girl from a fate...
...story doesn't really overcome the contrived manner of the dialect, which in any tongue has of course been successful only seldom. But it is unusual in its subject, the coming and going, if that's the right word, of a prophet to the Islands. Elaine Ford's The Foil lacks any development of a third character, Berthe, in a love story which is rather nicely handled in her clean style. Yet one has the feeling that none of the stuff in the first issue of The Editor was absolutely crying for publication...