Word: hocus
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...divorce laws theoretically shun the idea of mutual consent because it offends religious tradition and raises the specter of too many marriages being dissolved by whim or passing despair. In practice, however, 90% of U.S. divorces actually involve mutual consent that is disguised by legal hocus-pocus or outright perjury. Reason: the whole U.S. approach begins with a disastrous premise. Instead of recognizing that both parties are almost always partly to blame, U.S. law demands verified proof of "fault" by one partner-and only one. The insistence seems almost sadistic: the "innocent" party must prove his or her mate "guilty...
...born Mary Bauermeister, 30, believes that there is more than one way to look at a painting. She boxes pen and ink scribbles, beasties and the progress notes of her work beneath Plexiglas layers, scatters them with lenses in sizes ranging from contact to Cyclops. As the viewer moves, hocus-focus! Lines magically ripple, images flip. She has indulged herself in pebble collages, but her more recent optometry, such...
...Little Hocus-Pocus." The self-styled "Wizard of Clubs," Paul Hahn, 46, is the world's acknowledged expert at "devious ways of hitting the ball." A teaching pro since he was 18, Hahn took a fling at the P.G.A. tournament circuit after World War II, quit after two years ("I wasn't making any money"), and went back to telling duffers the difference between a mashie and a niblick. To keep himself amused, he tried "a little hocuspocus" on the practice tee, and club members started showing up to applaud such antics as hitting two balls simultaneously...
...best of plays; and certainly the Loeb Drama Center is capable of providing it in immense amounts. But CRIMSON reviewers must also realize that the process of making a play "come alive," as Mr. Gordon says Sophocles' works "honorably" do, is absolutely dependent upon a certain amount of hocus-pocus. Sets are gimmicks; so are theatrical lights; so are costumes and made-up faces. And they have a certain amount of validity: they began to be used even before theatre moved out of the cathedral. The problem is not whether or not gimmicks should be employed in the theatre...
...curiosity aroused, Gordon found out as much as he could about the rainmaker. The man insisted on remaining anonymous, but he was willing to talk a little, in a negative way, about his methods: "I don't use any machinery, chemicals or hocus-pocus...