Word: ineptly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...long, half-won battle, it has never accepted Nietzsche's contention that education in large states must inevitably be mediocre. It has rejected the spirit of Michel de Montaigne's bitter witticism: an inept child should be strangled "if there are no witnesses, or else . . . apprenticed to a pastry-cook in some good town." But harsh reality has often forced it to modify the classical educational concepts in order to give its raw levees of children some simple understanding of the language, of the country and its ideals, and of their duties as citizens...
...present, the inept acting and direction of Sherlock Holmes produces an embarrassing result--the play is often ridiculous. Trying to show veneration for Doyle's famous characters, the producers have made the play a self-conscious period piece, with actors delivering Victorian phrases with an earnest flamboyance better suited to East Lynne. Efforts to maintain action and focus interest on the stage are even more lamentable. The enormous cast keeps the stage constantly cluttered, particularly since some of the sets have at least four doors or windows which spew forth actors from time to time. Two of the sets...
Rhymester David McCord is fascinated by what happened to the positive form of such common words as inept, inert, disheveled, uncouth and unkempt. For years, McCord, who is secretary of the Alumni Fund of Harvard University and a well-known writer of light verse, has waged a happy campaign for the restoration of what he calls the Lost Positive. For amusement he writes sprightly rhymes full of positives, like the one above (which he calls Gloss) published in the January Harper's Magazine...
...jail to clear his name, Bogarde is hounded through the rubble-strewn ruins by the police and matches wits with skulking black-marketeers. The film fails because its events are too predictable for suspense, its hero and heroine too coldly competent for sympathy, and its villain (Albert Lieven) too inept to generate excitement...
Persimmons in Sparta. As Massachusetts' 55th governor, Christian Herter joins a variegated pantheon of men who have occupied the handsome old Bulfinch statehouse. The first governor was John Hancock, a vain and arrogant aristocrat who was as popular as he was inept, won nine terms in office. Poor, plain Sam Adams tried and failed to turn the Commonwealth into a "Christian Sparta." The election of David I. Walsh marked the rising tide of immigration: he was the first Irish Catholic to win the governorship. Persimmon-faced Cal Coolidge reversed the trend, turned back to Yankee conservatism. In three terms...