Word: ishness
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Baker's anecdotes and almanac-ish tips depict a world less evil than crazy and people afflicted less by self-interest than by tunnel vision. But even his most pointed observations are, at bottom, funny. When he satirizes network news in an anecdote showing how television "covered" the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden Eden, it is with the lightest of touches. Baker's ability to portray the less palatable sides of American life while keeping readers chuckling at his insights has made him America's funniest social critic; it also makes the Almanac splendid reading...
...name, as the saying goes, rings a bell. It sounds vaguely sixties-ish, though not really political. It also has a certain show biz resonance, but that's not exactly right either. Even at the height of his fame--from the mid '50s to the mid '60s--he occupied an unusual niche, and now, with the passage of time, Tom Lehrer has fallen between the cracks of celebrity...
...policies will have an impact on European economic thinking. This might be another example of what Tumlir saw as the political habit, exhibited in everything from trade policy to exchange rates, of using "a substitution of incantation for analysis." Brittan, though, perceived a benefit for Brit ish Conservatives. Said he: "What happens in France will make a great deal of difference in the development of British politics during the next few years. I think we must record a vote of thanks to the French for giving us three years of experimenting before the next British general election...
From there, says David Ish, spokesman for the exhibit, construction of the exhibit was a process of selecting and narrowing. Because the exhibit was to tour American cities, the highlighted individuals were to be Americans. In order to get the notebooks, sketchpads and interviews required for the exhibit, they had to by living (Margaret Mead, one of those included, dies after preparation of the exhibit had already begun). A list of creative scientists and artists was drawn up, people were polled and eventually 15 individuals and one team were selected...
Given the peculiarity of portraying neurotic tools, the three lead actors deliver uniformly fine performances. As Jean, the social-climbing, "wandering intellectual", Roger-Pierre--a paunchy, fifty-ish Charlie Chaplin, sans mustache--is the perfect ambitious bureaucrat: a tyrant with his wife, children, and mistress but a wimpy, play-by-the-rules kiss-ass in the office. Nicole Garcia's Janine represents that curious person you know well but who is either brilliant and wily or a complete and utter moron--and you can't decide which it is. Gerard Depardieu, oddly enough, looks more like Cro-Magnon...