Word: maladroitness
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Escoffier he is not. And no one could compare him to the organized Julia Child. But the Galloping Gourmet, who first roistered onto U.S. TV screens in 1969, charmed and instructed large audiences with his intentionally maladroit preparation of elegant food, claret-nipping and well-staged cocky capers. After a three-year sabbatical from television -caused by a near-fatal driving accident-Graham Kerr (rhymes with rare) is back on the tube, this time at a canter. Now, skipping foie gras, fondue and farce, Kerr has a basic, economy-oriented series of five-minute segments called Take Kerr, on view...
...Brooks can be forgiven almost anything. He always furnishes plenty that needs forgiving, but his best scenes are madder, funnier, more inspired than anything being done in movies today, including the rather coddled comedy of Woody Allen. Brooks must also have got tired of people telling him what a maladroit technician he has been, and he has taken some pains to correct that failing here. Young Frankenstein is his best-crafted film so far. It contains uniformly excellent performances, among which Madeline Kahn's delicate but libidinous fiancee ranks high...
Nonetheless, even Giscard's supporters admit that the government has been maladroit in handling the present strike crisis. During early negotiations with the postal workers, Pierre Lelong, Secretary of State for the Postal Service, called the task of sorting mail "an idiot's job." The unions are now insisting that negotiations be carried on by Premier Jacques Chirac, on the ground that Lelong is incompetent. After last week's police attack on the picketers, it appears that both sides were occupying entrenched positions...
...finally there is the case of the man whom many Tories saw as Heath's most attractive successor, Sir Keith Joseph, onetime Social Services Minister. Sir Keith has been laid low by a severe case of political harakiri. In a singularly maladroit (and largely inaccurate) speech early last month, he attacked the British lower classes for promiscuity and excessive breeding practices. Because of this, he is not expected to survive politically...
...second prevailing Watergate myth is that Republican dirty tricks determined the Democratic nomination. As one who was closely associated with the Muskie campaign until the Senator's withdrawal from the primaries, I am convinced that the reasons for his failure were not Donald Segretti's vicious yet maladroit acts of sabotage, but our own mistakes. Senator Muskie was slipping in the New Hampshire polls before he cried on the steps of the Union Leader. The Muskie campaign was out-organized in Wisconsin and over-extended in Florida. The Senator did not take or communicate clear issue positions; he seemed...