Word: hacks
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Department of Justice in the Watergate investigation. Almost to a man, agents argue that Nixon is trying to gain control of the agency for his own purposes and to "politicize" it. Echoing a common sentiment, one high-ranking agent says: "Nobody wants to work for a political hack." And, he adds, the retirements will grow to a mass exodus if the President picks another political appointee to head the bureau...
...time of excess, "everything is marketable," says Bucky's neighbor, a hack writer who lives on canned tomato soup and saltines. He is working on a new literary form: pornography for children. Globke, Bucky's anxious manager, is a winsome monster because he is totally aware of what he is. "I'm not new money, new culture, new consciousness," he says. "I emerge from a distinct tradition. Bad taste...
HOWEVER, EVEN IF ALTMAN can't rewrite a script (mostly written by a hack, Leigh Brackett), or restrain the mugging of top-billed Elliott Gould, he is such a gifted director that his visuals and tossed-off stage business alone hold our interest. He crams his frames with different people doing interesting things, like gangsters taking off their clothes as a sign of group solidarity, or a Malibu Colony security guard impersonating Hollywood stars. If some of the shtiks misfire, Altman keeps on coming with others that don't. And aside from Gould and a stoned-out Sterling Hayden (Altman...
Eugene White was the most effective performer for the Crimson, taking 6 out of 12 bouts, but none of the other Harvard starters would have been able to hack their way out of a paper sack had the need arisen. Freshman Eric Read, who replaced Ken Bartels after the senior had lost three of his first four contests, was as effective as White percentage wise, taking four of eight, but couldn't really boost the Crimson epee standing...
Mickey, played by Michael Caine, is the definitive hack, the proudly profane author of dozens of paperback thrillers, any one of which would make the novels of Mickey Spillane read like the collected works of John Ruskin. He turns out his books at the rate of 10,000 dictated words per day-just like Erie Stanley Gardner-and markets the finished products under a variety of exotic pseudonyms (like O.R. Gann, "a leading authoress," or "the struggling Nigerian author, S. Odomy"). He also adopts a zealously sleazy lifestyle and a cheap line of patter to fit his chosen profession...