Word: genial
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...slip quietly into the night. Last week he launched a quixotic quest to prove his own career forecast wrong, announcing that he was "throwing my helmet into the ring" for the 1988 G.O.P. nomination. At his debut press conference in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, a genial Haig laughed off a question about his pugnacity by saying, "Inside this exterior of militant, turf-conscious, excessively ambitious demeanor there's a heart as big as all outdoors." Later, snipping a ribbon to open his Manchester, N.H., headquarters, he cracked, "I'm used to a bayonet, but today I have...
Richard Viguerie, the right wing's genial blowtorch, is absolutely correct when he howls that Ronald Reagan has "abandoned every last pretense" of standing up against the Washington establishment. Reagan has lost his presidency for the time being to that moiling collection of political people and purposes that form the capital's core from generation to generation...
...problem is, the people for whom he has a genial contempt keep upsetting his equilibrium. A harmless pleasantry to the maid about her marriage prospects is rewarded with an unexpectedly bitter rebuke about men. A brief turn on the dance floor with a young woman results in a discomfiting discussion of Irish patriotism. Finally, the innocuous singing of a melancholy Irish air leads Gretta down a bitter path of memory that results in a crushing revelation, of a past life and an unforgotten lover who died for love...
Terry O'Quinn as the stepfather carries the burden of this suspense expertly, equally convincing in all his character's twisted levels of reality. His abrupt facial shifts from genial daddy to iron-jawed psycho are scary as hell--the expressions of contained violence, forced cheer, and wistful longing that flicker through this dude's eyes would shame many a Max Factor model. This guy really wants a happy family, and you see it in his face as he pitifully watches happy neighbors prancing around their lawns. Gotta love his end, it's just his means that send Oedipal chills...
...largely vacant expanse purporting to be "Reagan's brain." The President has returned the compliment. A devoted reader of what he calls the "funny pages," Reagan blasted the strip in October 1984, and has since said that he always skips over Doonesbury. Yet Rap Master Ronnie is outwardly as genial as the President it satirizes. This Reagan (Jim Morris) smiles incessantly; he may be befuddled but he is never cruel. That was a strategic choice by Trudeau and the show's composer, Elizabeth Swados, a theater innovator (Runaways) with whom he also created the Broadway Doonesbury. Says Trudeau: "We wanted...