Word: humdrum
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Billy's main escape is the life of his imagination, the land of Ambrosia--a fanciful municipality which he liberates and defends. In his humdrum real world, Billy is office boy and small time wheeler dealer. In Ambrosia he is Army General and poet laureate, capitalist-magnate, dictator, and idol of millions. His face beams down on cheering throngs from billboards and placards. Everywhere he is trailed by admiring troops and adoring women. Yet Ambrosia is only the infantile country of William Steig's "Dreams of Glory." Clearly, Billy's imagination has been spoon-fed and molded from childhood...
When Kennedy concluded, his audience heartily applauded, and the President was plainly pleased. Yet that night, after a disappointing reception in Miami, he might well have been discouraged by his Florida trip, read a humdrum speech about Latin American policy in listless fashion...
...Washington the First Lady can always be first on the social scene if she wants to. Not every Presidents wife has wanted to. Eleanor Roosevelt, for one was more interested in social workers than social life. Bess Truman set a good table, but threw humdrum affairs. Mamie Eisenhower tried, but lacked the flair. At a 1959 state dinner for Premier Khrushchev, she had Fred Waring in to entertain. While Waring's Pennsylvanians belted out Dry Bones, a translator mumbled "de words of de Lawd into the ear of a befuddled Nikita: Anklebone connected to de shinbone, shinbone connected...
...music darts into the ear, does its subtle job in the subcortex of the brain, then slips out the other ear without saying goodbye. The listener is all but unaware that he has heard anything, but the music has sloshed around inside his head, and, relieved of the humdrum business of thinking, he feels better immediately. His mouth smiles. He likes his work, loves his wife, spends his money. The only thing he has to fear is silence, but thanks to a company called Muzak and its many imitators in the background music business, he has nothing to worry about...
...Britain recognized his raj. He died a bachelor in 1868 and was succeeded by his nephew Charles, who ruled for 50 years. Ranee Pan. The rajah who brought Sarawak into the modern world was Charles Brooke's son, who took over in 1917. In the more humdrum world of the 20th century, witty, Cambridge-educated Sir Charles Vyner Brooke became even more of a legend than his predecessors. He issued his own stamps, flew his own flag, maintained his own army and police force. His ranee was Sylvia Brett, the beautiful daughter of a viscount who, it was said...