Word: octopus
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...Hotel Plaza. Bungalows have been built on Manhattan office buildings for several years-this is the first house-in-midair. An unnamed " sea monster" was captured off the coast of Florida. It was "40 feet long, 23 feet in circumference, weighed 15 tons." Its stomach contained a "400-pound octopus, 1,500 pounds of blackfish, 500 of rock coral...
There is a certain amount of loose and inaccurate talking in America to the effect that the League of Nations,--far from being the dream that some others call it,--is a super-state,--a sont of international octopus busily engaged with its many writhing tentacles in sucking away the national independence of nations. Nothing could be farther from the fact, for the Council must agree unanimously on all important questions of policy, and thus a single national veto can prevent the League from pursuing a course of which that nation disapproves. The organs of the League constitute simply...
...vessel at sea, dealing destruction to the crew, critics crowed right and left that he was the most arrant Romanticist, and that the scene was too far-fetched to carry conviction. Another of his most famous passages met with the same scepticism--the under-water battle with an octopus. Yet within six months, both of these incidents have been performed on the stage of everyday life. Last fall the newspapers told of a small sail-boat, only six miles from the scene of Hugo's story, which was actually attacked by a gigantic octopus. One tentacle, grasping the mast, almost...
...profession of teaching, an advanced degree has become almost a prerequisite. This passion for the mere letters of a degree is what William James once dubbed the "Ph.D. Octopus". Since his remark was written, a saner view has come into practice, but preference in filling professional positions still goes to the men who can boast of this advanced training...
Equally obvious are ways in which the "Ph.D. Octopus" may be kept in check, if applied before it is too late. If the standards were lowered, and the doctorate degree given for so much training, with the nightmare of Examination removed, a good deal of the present possibility of corruption could be eliminated. If private letters of introduction from instructors were to be substituted for the wage-earning qualities of a Ph.D., the inordinate desire for extra letters of the alphabet to place after one's name would largely disappear. Finally, if degrees were treated as secondary in importance...