Word: one-upmanship
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...20th century gallery the people admired the immovable flecks of paint that still suggested the fleeting vision of a group of Post-Impressionist painters. They chatted idly. The afternoon was a skirmish of de-clawed cultural one-upmanship. There was a lot of talk about market prospects for the paintings and the scarcity of a certain artist's work because it is difficult to sound knowledgeable about the sensations impressionism evokes. It is perhaps the most ambiguously worded of artistic messages precisely because it imparts no message. There is a foreshadowing of the primitivism of later 20th century...
...OFTEN the difference between an uninspiring show and a good one lies in the energy a cast can muster, both individually and as a unit. If a cast has a collective feeling and the actors do their homework, the audience senses a flow that carries it along from scene to scene. Without that intangible, scenes fall flat, jokes sound stale, and productions become free-for-alls of thespian one-upmanship. Exceptions on any level are rare, particularly on the college level. This problem takes a particularly acute form at the Loeb's Mainstage Theater, a beautifully appointed but somewhat cavernous...
...remind his readers, is about "how the power game is played, and who are the winners." In or out of print, there has been no abler exponent of the Felkerian philosophy than the ingenious Felker himself. From its first issue of April 8,1968, his avenue-smart urban-survival one-upmanship manual has exerted an influence far beyond its current 375,000 circulation and Manhattan bailiwick. Though it is frequently footling and vulgar, the weekly's intelligence and imaginative thrust have given its aggressive boss the money-power to take over the raffish, rambunctious Village Voice...
Ambassador Chaim Herzog dismissed Egypt's move as "a game of one-upmanship with Syria." Herzog's point was well made. Cairo and P.L.O. Leader Yasser Arafat have been feuding since September over Egypt's Sinai agreement with Israel. But lately Arafat has been even madder at Syrian efforts to impose peace in Lebanon and install a pro-Syrian President there, reducing the P.L.O.'s influence in the country. Suddenly last week the P.L.O. announced from Beirut that it had restored friendship with Cairo, and Egyptian Ambassador Ahmed Esmat Abdel Meguid went before the Security Council...
Korda dispenses breezy bits of office one-upmanship (jam a visitor's chair into a small space to make him feel powerless, speak softly to an elderly rival -it may make him think he is going deaf). Ringer's book is a heady parable of the worm (himself) who turned predator and earned a spectacular $849,901 in a single year of real estate wheeling and dealing. Despite the differences in style, the message is the same: death will come soon; meanwhile, there is nothing left to believe in but success and power in a cruel world...