Word: humbug
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...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...
...only motive ever put forward for his villainy is simply that he enjoys himself no end by being consummately nasty. But he is better than villainous: he is memorable. And he is memorable because he refuses to take the rantings of his fellows seriously. Everything they say is humbug, he decides;--so everything he says will be humbug...
Thank God, a winner at last. No clap-trap in this one, no humbug and no humdrum inanities. The lean years are over (briefly, at any rate); and good theatre, entertaining entertainment, intelligent humor and everything that's good have returned to the Boston stage. After which quotable phrases it is my duty to tell you that Beyond the Fringe, which opened at the Colonial Theatre night before last, is beyond doubt the cleverest and best piece of theatre that will come anywhere near Boston this year. I laughed my fool head...