Word: leaden
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...nexus of language and politics was recognized years ago, of course, when in "Politics and the English Language" George Orwell analyzed the way in which the abstract, leaden prose in England had dulled readers' capacity for independent thought. Writing immediately after World War II, when he saw writers increasingly give themselves over to the dogmas of newly-potent ideologies, Orwell wrote that "if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. "The use of tired metaphors, excess words, Latinate nouns, meaningless, bombastic phrases--all led to a "reduced state of consciousness," which was "favorable to political conformity." Only by using...
...half-sighted, with a black patch over one eye. But he must not talk at half speed; after all, he "will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month." Yet Rounds delivers his delicate and dazzling "Queen Mab" aria in a leaden manner, with lots of pauses. Vivace has become andante. I've said before--and I repeat--that the best guide here is the Queen Mab vocal scherzetto and orchestral scherzo from Berlioz's symphony. Furthermore, for a man who revels so in words, Mercutio should know that "lamentable" is accented on the first...
...inaugural and the day after, the stock market's recently leaden Dow Jones industrial average shot up almost 50 points, its largest two-day gam ever; Wall Street analysts attributed part of it to a boost in political confidence caused by Ford's swearing-in. In Washington, an AFL-CIO lobbyist said that Ford's arrival was "our go-ahead" for a broadened labor push for impeachment. In addition, the two dailies owned by Chicago's Field Enterprises chose Ford's inauguration day as the occasion to urge in editorials the "vigorous pursuit" of impeachment...
...nearly-unintelligible stream of consciousness conversations with nostalgic recollections of Europe and his variable and impressive career. Edo who is as close a facsimile of the renaissance man as one can find anywhere west of Vienna, who on isolated, occasions has likened his team to a forest, a leaden silver dollar, and a stick of rotten wood ("a nice appearance outside, but no caloric value when you out it in the fire"), who demands style and elegance above win-lost records, who interrupts crucial matches for summit conference on the strip and winds up after two or three or five...
What's this? Cold nerve? Endurance? Retirement is supposed to be drifting, isn't it? Loafing and inviting the soul? That's not what Hills found, and his report has the leaden ring of truth. The trouble is, while the upper class, where it still exists, is born to leisure, and the lower class is in sporadic danger of having leisure thrust upon it, the poor old middleclass, middle-aged man is a creature of work. He is his work and is so acknowledged by those he meets at cocktail parties: "Ah, you're a fiction...