Word: hocus
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...face in expressing temperament, heredity, life habits, glandular function. One such scientist, Dr. Charlotte Wolff, physician and psychologist, last week gave her second summary of findings in the science of chirology. In The Human Hand (Alfred A. Knopf, $3) she carried on her rescue of the hand from the hocus-pocus of palmistry and fortunetelling, gave laymen some interesting reading as well...
...change in location and season made little difference in the reception of ancient class parts. The Ivy Oration, by Joseph C. Scott, was greeted with applause and laughter from the "Classmatibus hic haec hoc anno domini c pluribus unum veritas ad infinitum hocus pocus salutem" at the beginning, to the imitation of a History I professor who declared at the end, that "the chaos to which we are now subjected is like the screechings and scratching of a great orchestra, which is in reality but tuning up to play a great triumphal march-the Overture in Africa-and the Finale...
Provocative, unusual, but often unsatisfying, The Skin of Our Teeth dolls up its theme rather than dramatizes it. The fourth dimension somehow stays apart from the other three. Hocus-pocus and moral never quite blend. But the hocus-pocus-with superbly vivacious Actress Bankhead handing most of it out-is often extremely funny. "I hate this play," she suddenly confides. "That's the worst line I've ever had to say on any stage," she complains wearily; but she never spoke one better...
...enough was the housewife's normal milk problem: how to get a bottle of good milk cheap despite a hocus-pocus of trade names, grades and delivery methods. Much worse is the problem now threatening: how to get milk...
...CASE OF THE DROWNING DUCK- Erle Stanley Gardner-Morrow ($2). Perry Mason, hired to investigate an 18-year-old California murder mystery, saves a likable youngster from the results of his hocus-pocus with detergents, runs a crook to earth, and solves two contemporary poisonings. Enough plot and action for two novels...