Word: neatness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...most productive figure in history is the individual trying to improve his status. Whether he is an Asian peasant tilling his land or an American businessman building a company, the profit incentive is a powerful force. Capitalism is not a neat, orderly system. The street vendors of Lima or Peking or New York City, some basic examples of capitalism, are more chaotic than the orderly but often empty stores in so many socialist states. Capitalism's unruliness means that it will always be subject to swings of boom and bust. The system, however, presents the constant opportunity for profit...
...mystery. His cunning tale opens on the discovery of a gruesome murder, with details of the victim and perpetrator withheld. It soon develops that both must be part of the triangle, but Brett defines his characters so that any combination of killer and prey seems possible. That is a neat trick, but it is also a persuasive metaphor for Brett's underlying theme: that most of mankind is tortured by dark impulses and that chance plays a major role in determining which people actually commit crimes...
...Other nations, after all, share similar frustrations. But they don't respond the way we do. We Americans favor and justify retaliation because we see things in terms of the good-guys and the bad-guys. And, not surprisingly, the U.S. is almost always the good-guys in this neat formula...
...place of intricate plotting, hidden clues and surprise solutions, American detective fiction relies on character and language. Both are aggressively egalitarian, rejecting fancy airs and flowery talk. Here is Marlowe recalling a visit to a client: "I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars." He and his kin are cynical, terse and masters of an amiably menacing tone that echoes the classic response to insult of Owen Wister's The Virginian: "When you call...
Sandwiches account for the form and popularity of packaged American sliced bread because the uniform slices permit neat, orderly results, easy to hold or wrap. Hero sandwiches, based on the box lunches carried by Italian construction workers, are exceptions to the rule of trimness and are valued for their heft. They have spawned several American variations, known as submarines, torpedoes, grinders, hoagies and, in the South, po' boys (all the ingredients a poor--and hungry--boy can fit into one sandwich). These in turn are the forerunners of the New Orleans muffuletta, a round hero full of Italian ham, salami...