Word: knack
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...nice enough old gentleman, and no one suspects him of not meaning well. We can sympathize with him for wanting to tell people how many books he has read and how nice they all were, and in sympathy we can forgive much. We can wink at his little knack of splitting infinitives and misusing words; we can smile tolerantly when he tells us that Edmund Burke was a Democrat and "A Vindication of Natural Society" the most sincere expression of his political philosophy; we can, with an effort, keep our gorge down when he says he can never forget...
...DEPARTMENT * * * One of the things they sort of run to down here at Harvard is examinations, so now is as good a time as any to give the boys who are coming to Harvard the low down on how to pass the examinations here. There is just a little knack to it, and if you know the knack you don't have to spend a couple of months flunking exams finding out for yourself the curves of the examinations. In the first place, it should be understood that the Harvard method of answering a question is one calculated to baffie...
...question, pop out again, race back to his desk. Amiable, casual in manner, he sped callers on their way with "Good luck, old boy. Thanks for coming in." His job was to meet tycoons when they went to Washington with their problems and he had the knack of sending them all away happy whether or not they got what they wanted. Last week U. S. Steel acquired his future services. On April 1 he will become vice chairman of Steel's Finance Committee filling the post vacated by the promotion of William J. Filbert (TIME, Dec. n). Steel permits...
Stoopnagle and Bud, famous for their work on the radio, perform on the stage with a seemingly natural knack of knowing what will get a laugh. They take off Rudy Valee, Bert Lahr, and the Barbasol Man. The imitation of Rudy's singing by Bud was excellent, and elicited many healthy sniggers from the audience. No less commendable in the stage show was a couple which did the tango and rumba gracefully...
Technically, the strength of Champion Crawford's game lies in its lack of any noticeable weakness, in a knack of anticipation, and in an extraordinarily keen discrimination about when to play a ball and when to let it go out. His serve, almost as severe as Vines's, is equally dependable. With slower ground strokes than most first-rate U. S. tennists, and less style than most Englishmen, who play as though the net were a mirror, Crawford has an energetic steadiness that depresses his opponents, a tireless ability to play his positive, muscular shots, not for aces...