Word: mother-in-law
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These lavender soap-opera elements are neatly mixed by Novelist Howard; skilled writing and a mother-in-law's eye for weakness of character make this novel a cucumber-sandwich cut above the average summer reading for women. It is one more study in the strange and terrifying fissures that scar the once sturdy heart of the British middle class. The means employed are female. Yet the reader with an attentive eye can see, as did Poet Wystan Auden, how "the crack in the teacup opens a lane to the land of the dead...
...sign of polio. X rays revealed nothing. There seemed to be nothing wrong with Charlie's heart or nervous system. Yet his breathing and swallowing were labored. So the doctors put him in an iron lung. Bit by bit the explanation came out: Charlie's mother-in-law had become angry with him, evidently wanted him out of the way so her daughter could marry a Groote Island aborigine. So, Charlie gasped from his iron lung: "I bin sung." Explained a fellow tribesman, acting as interpreter: "Him bin sung song of dreamtime snake. When you sung snake song...
...disappeared. His appetite returned. Charlie seemed convinced he was going to make it. Still weak, he will have to remain in the hospital for a month to regain his strength. Then he will be returned to his tribe, perhaps fortified sufficiently to resist the further machinations of his mother-in-law. Said Charlie gratefully: "White man, him very clever. White man magic better than black fella magic...
...murky story of top-to-bottom official corruption that got its cue from Perón and extended down to such lowly posts as zoo keepers (one of whom appropriated the zoo's imported canaries for his private collection). Some tidbits: ¶ Perón did his mother-in-law out of half of her bequest from the late Eva Perón, then with a medieval flourish had Evita's brother, Juan Duarte, killed because he knew too much.* ¶ The dictator lavished $20 million on the clubs of his Union of High School Students, favoring teen...
...most venerable cliché in U.S. humor is the mother-in-law joke. December Bride (Mon. 9:30 p.m., CBS), which translates the joke and variations to television, has astounded the industry by elbowing its way into the top ten. Nielsen and Trendex place Bride No. 5; ARB has it tied for sixth (with Disneyland and I've Got a Secret). Videodex and Pulse report it "consistently...