Word: hokum
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...plan with so much vision done so cheaply was heralded as everything from election-year hokum to signature Bush policy--a bold stroke accompanied by incremental steps to measure results. The idea is that while the earthbound Democratic presidential candidates are having their down-in-the-dirt primary fight, arguing about the past, George Bush is charting a future course for the heavens. "We will build new ships to carry man forward into the universe, to gain a new foothold on the moon and to prepare for new journeys to worlds beyond our own," said Bush...
...ways of thinking” instead of “bodies of knowledge.” Fortunately, when interviewed, Dean of Undergraduate Education Benedict H. Gross ’71, who will play a central role in the review process, did not seem unduly wedded to that hokum. “It is not that easy to differentiate between teaching students ways of thinking and bodies of knowledge,” he said. “The best Core courses choose really significant material to introduce intellectual concepts...
...Country Girl" is part hokum, part harrowing portrait of an old performer (we won't say self-portrait). Odets' form of dramaturgy is to load the dice against the Kelly character, then let her load the gun against Crosby and Holden. Crosby is the least shrill; that is part of his drunk's cunning. Frank lies in the same melodic, trombonish tone that Crosby had used to project sincerity for a quarter century. But when he's not pushing the blarney, he gives subtle glimpses of the decay that age and alcohol etches in a man. His face is fallen...
...Devils, a Manhattan quintet, tears into Dinah--tears it up, rather, and tosses it like confetti over the giddy audience. Music historian Robert Armstrong defines the band's sound as a "unique blend of jazz, pop and hokum," and a few seconds into Dinah, the listener surrenders to the melange. The plucky violinist takes a solo, then a guy going infectiously nuts on tissue paper and comb. Finally it's steel guitarist King Bennie Nawahi's turn. He attacks the melody while caressing his instrument; his solo, like the best improvs, seems both wild and thoughtful. The full band convenes...
...That's hokum, of course--the bit of flimflam at the core of her listening tour. Hillary knew more about health care and education than most of the panelists she was listening to last week. She displayed an extraordinary command of policy detail, a steely anger on behalf of those getting screwed by the health and education systems, a fine ear for the telling local anecdote (such as the Ithaca car-crash victim denied insurance coverage after she failed to get preapproval for her emergency helicopter evacuation because she was unconscious at the time). But she was the Woman...