Word: humbug
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Died. Patrick Kavanagh, 62, Irish poet; of pneumonia; in Dublin. Better known for his acid tongue than for his lyric poetry, Kavanagh found modern poetry "pretentious," Emerson "a sugary humbug," Yeats "You can have him." Yet Ireland knew him as one of its strongest talents for such works as "The Great Hunger...
...last two aspects of his talent are most in evidence in The Trials of Brother Jero and The Strong Breed, though the two one-acters rank among his lesser plays. Brother Jero is a broad spoof of a religious humbug, a con man of prophecy who lives by mulcting his worshipers, or "customers," as he calls them in moments of absent-minded lucidity. He preys on their hopes, fears and vices, his own trial and joy being inveterate womanizing...
...Slob, Humbug & Jealousy. Volcanic in origin, the islands are a myriad of forms and sizes ranging from a barren cay to agricultural St. Croix, which is 26 miles long and up to six miles wide. St. Thomas offers the bustle of Charlotte Amalie, the islands' capital city, as well as ancient forts and quaint Danish architecture. St. Croix, quieter and less populated, boasts a rain forest and an arid, cactus-studded bluff, wildlife (deer, quail), a profusion of tropical fruit from papaya to pineapples, a golf course, and old plantations with such calypso names as "Slob," "Humbug" and "Jealousy...
...youthful reputation as a scandalous womanizer (deserved) and as a financial charlatan (undeserved) haunted his career. All his life he was candid to the point of impudence and imprudence and maintained a totally un-Victorian intolerance of humbug and hypocrisy. His pen dripped venom. He once endowed an opponent with "the crabbed malice of a maundering witch." Justifying his casual inconsistency on an issue in Parliament, he bluntly said: "We came here for fame." When friends congratulated him on his first accession to the prime ministership, Disraeli said cynically: "Yes, I've climbed to the top of the greasy...
...American Massachusetts Institute of Technology there is by tradition a bad custom of ragging new students. It is perfectly legal for senior students to humbug the newcomers. A "school regulation" is in force whereby a student, having just entered the school, is blindfolded, taken to the suburbs, and then allowed to grope in the dark for his way home. It was in this way that a new student once fell into a hole of frozen water and got drowned. And, in the view of many senior students, this innocent boy who had lost his life "deserved it!" This bad custom...