Word: goldfishing
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...Goldfish Bowl...
...gesticulating before a mirror. The youngster puckered her lips, fluttered her eyelashes, tilted her head, and went through all the motions of singing-but no sound came forth. When the puzzled mother asked for an explanation, her daughter said that she was practicing for her part as a "goldfish" in the music festival. Goldfish, it developed, are the nonmusical children who stand with their classroom choirs and silently mouth words while the really talented singers do the competing, unhampered by croaks, voice breaks, sour notes or unpremeditated riffs...
...first mother, much amused, did nothing about it. But other parents, learning about goldfish for the first time, began withdrawing their children from the competition. Richard Glover, a University of Manitoba history professor, took his eleven-year-old goldfish son out of the choir line-up for this spring's festival. Said Glover: "His reaction was that his school just wanted him to cheat the referee. I think he was right...
Festival judges denied that they had ever been deceived. They were always aware that some of the children on the festival stage were not singing, but they tolerated the practice of goldfishing because it enabled even tone-deaf children to share in the fun, and might eventually develop latent musical talent in some of the unpromising. There was also something to be said, perhaps, for the training in dramatics that the goldfish received. Reported one veteran chorister: "The ones who don't sing always have the most expression on their faces...
Meeting No. 4. Bob Stevens, a man-of-good-will trained in a family textile business, walked with Karl Mundt into the Capitol's room P-54. Later, a Washington quipster observed that when Stevens entered the room, he was "like a goldfish in a tank of barracuda." Meeting No. 4 featured fried chicken, peas, french fries, head-of-lettuce salad and Joe McCarthy. Also present: Dirksen, and later, Potter. Stevens started with a complaint about McCarthy's abuse of Zwicker. Retorted McCarthy: How could the Army explain the court-martialing of "a poor, brainwashed G.I."* in contrast...