Word: hamming
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Ham It Up. The incentive, of course, is money, in a sport where champions have traditionally worked for glory rather than cash. The 54 men and women in the meet will compete as contract employees of the new International Track Association (I.T.A.). They will get $500 as first-prize money in their specialty at each meet. Bonus awards will go to athletes who tie ($100) or break ($500) a listed world record. The purses are modest by comparison with most pro-sport salaries. But if professional track catches on at the gate, there will be television rights, remunerative endorsements...
Initially, the objective is to attract live crowds as proof of track's commercial appeal. To please fans, the I.T.A.'s eleven-page operations manual frankly encourages troupe members to ham it up: "Wave during introductions, smile, turn to all sides of the arena and acknowledge the applause. Many U.S. athletes act glum as if they are about to be shot in the next minute." Matson, the world record holder (71 ft. 5½ in.) in the shotput, but a rather colorless performer, recognizes the problem. "If everyone was like me," he says, "nobody would come...
...Gorney, a psychologist at U.C.L.A., agrees. "Ten years ago the Louds wouldn't have permitted TV to film intimate details of their domestic life. But the sense of privacy has been very much changed." Asks Bill, a handsome six-footer who amiably acknowledges that he is quite a ham: "What would you have done if someone came to you and said they wanted to spend $1,250,000 on a film about you?" Adds Lance: "The series was the fulfillment of the middle-class dream that you can become famous for being just what you are. This is actually...
...windswept, hardscrabble farms run by families who need their animals for transport, income or food. Thus the worried calls reporting "summat amiss" frequently mark the unspoken fear that the caller's family may face a winter with no milk money for clothing or no home-cured ham for the table...
...company housing and to shop at the company store. He was named scrip, but only as an advance--its value was deducted from his future salary. In order to help any grandfather through the crisis, relatives in Chicago would send him, his wife, and their six children bacon and ham. But when the company store discovered he was no longer purchasing these staples, they cut off the scrip. There was nothing left to do but head North...