Word: hocus
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Major Clement Attlee, the leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition, asked if it were not "unprecedented" to indulge .in such a hocus-pocus of exchanging non-diplomatic agents. "I do not know of any exact precedents for this situation," replied the Prime Minister, but afterward the Foreign Office's adept precedent-finders found two. There are "British agents" today in Ethiopia and in Manchukuo, they pointed out, and their presence has not constituted recognition by His Majesty's Government of either the empire in Ethiopia or the empire in Manchukuo...
...maze is for him to resign, handing over the sceptre to a regent in trust for the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of the Duke of York and heir apparent. This dignified gesture would hurt the crown much less than the current hush-hush hocus pocus, and would allow all parties to breathe easier...
Antoine de Paris, popped into Lloyds Bank for money and on visiting her new house to inspect the decoration, indulged in some hocus-pocus with the hall lights, said to have been devised by Bodyguardsman David Storier. When the hall light gave two short winks and one long, that meant that Chauffeur Ladbrooke was to start up the royal Buick and with engine buzzing open the door for Mrs. Simpson to dash from house...
...News's editors concluded that the best way to build up their columnist as a circulation-puller was to make a mystery of her identity. They have continued to whet Detroit's curiosity by creating around Nancy Brown's real name as titillating a hocus-pocus as that which made the reputations of The Man in the Iron Mask and radio's Your Lover. At her parties and religious services she mingles anonymously with the crowd. Only a few of her Column Folks have guessed...
...Factor does keep graduate chemists busy over the ingredients of his cosmetics, but typical of the faint air of hocus-pocus which surrounds the whole beauty industry was what guests saw at his studio last week. There was a spectroscopic contraption which, since Factor's speciality is "color harmony guidance," was supposed to show the slightest color deviation in the subject. There was a contrivance intended to calibrate facial contours minutely. Giant rollers ground grease paint to remove the tiniest speck of granular imperfections. From "the largest powder bin in the world" the powder was meticulously sifted through silk...