Word: jerkingly
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...biology concentrator in Leverett House. With the incendiary perspective of a cynical senior, he hopes to discuss Harvard and senior life while combating political correctness and knee-jerk liberalism – and maybe ruffle a few feathers along the way. His column, “Seniority Complex,” will appear on alternate Fridays...
...These subjects are controversial enough that I do expect, and have already received, some knee-jerk reactions: on the right, saying that this [is a way of saying] that the origins of this nation aren't Christian, or some kind of politically correct glorifying of savages; and on the left, saying that I am trashing them by saying they are violent, and not perfect stewards of nature. In fact, Indians were human beings, just like anybody else. Like anybody else, they did some absolutely amazing stuff, and some stuff that makes you roll your eyes...
Dabney Coleman established himself as Hollywood's go-to smarmy jerk in such sublimely '80s comedies as Nine to Five and Tootsie. But he hit his apex of riotous unlikability in this 1983-84 sitcom about local talk-show host Bill Bittinger. Selfish, lecherous and desperate to move up the career ladder, he irritated and deceived his crew (including a young Geena Davis) with impeccable smarminess. Bill presaged HBO's Larry Sanders and The Office's David Brent, but it took TV a decade or two to catch up with him. Thankfully...
...sentimentality. They are people, not case studies. In the pilot, for instance, Sam dates a sweet girl whom he tricks into dressing like an actress from a cookie commercial. He does this, we see, because of deep body-image and intimacy issues (also because he's kind of a jerk...
Niebuhr's strategy of reaching beyond the confines of Detroit's German community helped swell Bethel's membership sixfold in the years after the war. There was another lure: the pastor's preaching. He was, writes Fox, "the educated Protestant's Billy Sunday," who would "strut, gyrate, jerk, bend and quake." Bethel's growing prestige strengthened Niebuhr's hand when he took on Henry Ford, castigating the legendary automaker and other industrialists. He ended up a thoroughgoing Christian Socialist, evoking the biblical prophets and a bit of Marx as he thundered against the exploitation of labor...