Word: odd
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...odd that we treat intellectual property this way. If the ART had been trespassing on Beckett's farm instead of his literature, there would be no question of his right to kick them out. Many of us feel the same level of rights apply to intellectual property and for better reasons. In a sense, a person deserves what she creates more than she deserves what she inherits. The creator has a deeper, more personal interest in her own creation than in things she purchases from a grocery store or a real estate agent. The interest is emotional. It is also...
Willard Sterne Randall, a former investigative reporter who was directed to the Franklin imbroglio by Historian Catherine Drinker Bowen, has done a brilliant reconstruction from archival material widely scattered in England, France and the U.S. Although his research was thorough enough to produce a 700-odd item bibliography, Randall's greatest skill is portraiture. In A Little Revenge, both Franklins are vital, believable figures: Benjamin, "puffy and smooth from gout, his body overweight and rounded into the peculiar barrel shape of the once-powerful swimmer too long out of the . water"; William, "a smoother, thinner, sharper replica of his father...
...genius, Mr. B. had a marvelous, ample personality. He was riveting to watch, hilarious to listen to. Like a god, he never explained. Instead, he demonstrated, and a dancer had to have the technique as well as the intuition and sensitivity to interpret. His spoken comments were usually odd, elliptical little puns, analogies or fables, often involving animals or food. Thus the Balanchine you got was the Balanchine you were able to assimilate for yourself. In a narrative, such a person is foolproof, or rather, writer-proof...
...role may reach its apotheosis in the State Dining Room. Yet even state dinners are, to Nancy Reagan, an agglomeration of hundreds of prosaic checklist items. She approves and tastes beforehand virtually every item on every menu. During the first term, she spent roughly 450 hours planning 30-odd state dinners. She presided at nearly as many other official dinners, as well as an additional 250 official White House functions, the picture-perfect but surely enervating flurry of luncheons, teas, receptions. Such occasions require a deep well of small talk and unwavering poise. Last month, at a dinner in honor...
...Rainey's Black Bottom, a quartet of black gents sit around talking about music, women, and the demonstrable unfairness of life. Alas, Ma Rainey natters toward its climax like Ibsen gone funky, but it illuminates the talents of worldly-wise actors; one, Charles S. Dutton, spumes anger as the odd man out, striding, not shuffling, to his doom. A one-woman show? Catch Whoopi Goldberg, six monologues written and performed by a rag-doll actress with a bonkers stage name. Some of the skits are predictably poignant, and two just peter out. But the evening serves as an embossed calling...