Word: humbug
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...form), or the eviscerated version lucubrated by the gnosis of the demythologizers? Evidently the former. If the hermeneutical scalpel is to be wielded in public, one must use great care lest he convey to the little ones that Scrooge was correct when he said of the Christmas tale, "Bah, humbug...
...encounters that rare species, the Vassar girl, Alan Simpson will no doubt remain a witty, candid and ingratiating foe of highfalutin humbug in language or learning. Not that he equates the straightforward with the rough-and-ready. British-born and an Oxford graduate, he joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1946 as a newly demobbed Royal Artillery major and rose to become dean of the college. "On coming to the United States," Simpson recalls, "I was struck by the style in clothes, cars, and homes, but unfortunately the American mind chugs along like a Model T - persevering and rugged...
...somewhat shocking fact is that the document which both sides have cited as holy writ is pages of windy formulas, murky prejudices, and dogmatic affirmations of faith expressed in the virulent humbug of Washington official language. The worst failing among many is its meaningless generality. "Our views concerning specific countries have been discussed at length with the Administration of A.I.D." Mr. Bell must be relieved to know that they have views, but his relief hardly explains why the rest of us were not let in on them. Indeed, except for India and Pakistan, all names that might give...
Tremendous Humbug. The man who challenged the masters was short-legged, plump and swarthy, with violently staring eyes. He wore his hair in bangs to conceal two hornlike protuberances that jutted from his forehead. Contemporaries noted that there was something catlike in his manners, his wit and his sulks. Wrote Poet André Suares: "Just as the cat rubs itself against the hand, Debussy caresses his soul with the pleasure which he invokes." A natural bohemian, the composer spent nights roaming Montmartre with celebrities of the period ranging from Mata Hari to Marcel Proust...
...coveted Grand Prix de Rome by tossing off a composition (L'Enfant Prodigue) in deliberate imitation of Lalo and Delibes, the popular French composers of the day. Debussy was no admirer of either man, or of any other French contemporary. To him Berlioz was "a tremendous humbug, Charpentier was "downright vulgar," Massenet a panderer of "stupid ideas and amateur standards...