Word: gracious
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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These traces of the "gracious living" of the late thirties are two of the most obvious indications that Yale is well on the path to what the New Haven university's administrators like to call "post-war normalcy...
Death on the American Plan is practiced in a temple of make-believe known as the Funeral Home. The shrine is constructed, as often as possible, along the lines of a country club and rectory combined. Outside, there are gracious plantings of evergreens-designed to "create favorable public sentiment." Inside, there is a sumptuous succession of music rooms, chapels, lavatories, storerooms, and, of course, "slumber rooms." The decoration is "subdued but cheerful," which enables many funeral homes, when their business is lagging, to rent space to wedding parties. And here, where the reek of euphemism mingles with the chemical deodorant...
...Back in 1937 seven young ladies came to Mrs. Albert and asked her to help them bridge the gap from the young, uncertain, immature girl to the well poised, gracious, attractively groomed, confident young lady." It is plain by the girls' choice of words that Mrs. Albert had some pretty good material to start with, but this should not detract from her future accomplishments...
Speaking about the effect of overcrowding on the Houses, the Committee states: "We are aware of the official opinion that the Houses are overcrowded and that an important element of 'gracious living' has disappeared on that account. But we must report that on this score the undergraduates appear to be a good deal less concerned than the faculty...
...possible reasons that the Committee did not find "concerned" undergraduates in the Houses. One is that many of these undergraduates were not there at the time: they were out eating in restaurants because they couldn't get into the House dining room. Another is that many upperclassmen, who know "gracious living" only as a sardonic commentary on the present situation in the Houses, have no idea of what it's like to have a room of their own in which to sleep and study. Having never had this experience, students can hardly be "concerned" about missing...