Word: joads
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...goat-bearded, argumentative agnostic was London University's Philosopher Cyril Edwin Mitchison Joad, who once asserted (on the dust-jacket of his Testament of Joad): "I can explain anything to anybody." For the last 18 months he has carried out this threat on a popular BBC radio program, "The Brains Trust." But of late radio fans have noticed a decreasing cockiness in Brain Truster Joad's answers. One shrewd lady listener wrote him that he seemed to be walking a tightrope between the mountain of faith and the abyss of doubt, and that she prayed every night...
From England, where pictures of the younger generation at play are rare these days, came two substitutes, rare in their own way: a shot of grizzle-bearded, 50-year-old Philosopher C. E. M. Joad giving his portly all in a London field-hockey match; a shot of 63-year-old Lady Nancy Astor footing it featly at the opening of bomb-blasted Plymouth's summer season...
...danger zone 200 miles away; it was a wet, cold, angry evening. At an emergency underground studio arrived Expert No. 1: wild-haired Professor Julian Huxley, fresh from the Zoo, where he had been seeing to the safety of tigers. Expert No. 2, Philosopher Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad, clumped in on loud-nailed boots, carrying a vast haversack. Expert No. 3, Commander Archibald Bruce Campbell (retired), glared red-faced at his high-brow colleagues. The first question, propounded by elegant Humorist William Donald McCullough, was "What are the Seven Wonders of the World?" Nobody knew...
...struggled on," said McCullough afterward, "in a series of furious silences. ..." But Any Questions? soon began to zoom into popularity. People liked salty Commander Campbell (" 'e's not so dumb, 'e's just got common sense instead of heducation."). They liked goat-bearded Cyril Joad because he could and would talk beautifully about anything. They liked Huxley for his precise knowledge (after a brilliant disquisition by Joad on "What is Love?" Scientist Huxley gave a direct biological answer...
Guest artists of increasing distinction accepted invitations to appear. Ellen Wilkinson, M.P., endeared herself by threatening to pull Joad's beard. The Honorable Harold Nicolson was elected to BBC's Board of Governors a few days after experting on Any Questions? ; the Brains Trust disrespectfully took all the credit...