Word: oxbridgian
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Even after we come to accept the names imposed on us, or acquire ones we like, we still have some difficulty in agreeing on what to call one another. In England it is considered very proper and Oxbridgian to address a man simply by his last name. Most Americans call one another by their first names, even if they have just met. Except in Anglophile circles, many consider it standoffish, if not rude, to address a fellow worker as Mr. Jones. On the other hand, a fair number of people still dislike being patted on the shoulder and called Harry...
...days and ominous nights, three British prisoners run variations on the national character. Hicksley-Ellis (Jack Thompson) conducts his impotent belligerence by the book; ragged, resilient Jack Celliers (David Bowie) has the clear eyes and defiant smirk of a Kipling hero; Lawrence (Tom Conti), the camp translator, is an Oxbridgian humanist seeking a tunnel into the Oriental mind. Men are strong; men are shot; men fight on for their peculiar codes of honor. This is an art-house Bridge on the River Kwai, with neither bridge nor river, only a fatal, futile game that each side plays with different rules...
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