Word: martinet
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Even France's famous "civilizing mission" to the rest of the world has come under question. French policy toward the Arab countries, supposedly an example of Paris' understanding approach to Third World aspirations, sank practically without a trace in the quicksand of the gulf crisis. Says Gilles Martinet, an ex-ambassador with close links to the Socialists: "For most of our statesmen, whether they belonged to the left or the right, France was always strong, feared, respected, admired and envied -- until the gulf war taught us otherwise...
After Meese's stolidity and forgetfulness, Don Regan came across as a refreshing model of candor and good humor. In the days before his ouster five months ago, Regan was denigrated as an iron-fisted martinet whose poor advice to the President had only worsened the scandal. But Regan gave blunt answers to the committees and cracked self-deprecating jokes about his tenure in Washington. Describing the President as "not the type that likes to go around firing people," Regan quipped, "That's an ironic statement coming from me." It was clear that Regan had less of a grip...
Born in Linares, a village in southern Spain, young Andres briefly studied the violin. But his teacher was a harsh martinet, and Segovia was unmoved by the sound of the instrument. "The violinists and cellists I heard in the Granada of that time seemed to extract catlike wails from the violin and asthmatic gasps from the cello," he wrote in Segovia, his 1976 memoir. "But even in the hands of common people, the guitar retained that beautiful plaintive and poetic sound...
...identify the distinguishing feature of Baker's two-month stewardship in the boiler room of the White House: "innate civility and kindness." That's an oddity after decades of worshiping brilliance, cunning and toughness. We have had the regimes of the ascetic and cerebral Ted Sorensen (under J.F.K.), the martinet Bob Haldeman (Nixon), the good ole country boy Ham Jordan (Carter) and the Wall Street sharpie Don Regan, who preceded Baker...
...many tears are shed when Clifton Holt, artistic director of the National Ballet Company, is stabbed to death by a drug addict. His dancers had regarded him as a martinet, and his board of directors as a threat to their social ambitions. But what appears to be one more senseless Manhattan murder takes an abrupt turn when the killer is himself killed in prison after bragging that he was paid $24,000 for the Holt job. "Damn," says Reuben Frost, "will all this be in the papers?" Not a chance. For Frost, retired Wall Street lawyer and the dance company...