Word: paff
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That's an adjective not usually applied to the younger Hoffa. "He's an empty suit with a famous name," says Ken Paff, chief organizer for Teamsters for a Democratic Union, Carey's main base of political support within the union. But Hoffa is wired for a fight this time. He has spent the past two months traveling the U.S., rallying the rank and file and invoking theories of conspiracy. "The government doesn't want me to run," he snaps. "They want to control the Teamsters. When we take over, we will reinvigorate this union and change its course forever...
Giuliani counters that restoring democracy to the union is precisely the Government's plan. But Ken Paff, national organizer for the reform group Teamsters for a Democratic Union, believes the answer isn't a trusteeship but an open, supervised election. "Our people will vote no if given the chance," he says...
...Paff, a leading Teamster dissident, is not impressed. Said he: "The Labor Department has consistently bungled. We're worried it's going to be even worse under [Secretary Raymond] Donovan...
...that "boat race" is current Cockney rhyming slang for face. There is no end to this; it is ceaselessly fascinating to learn that between 1780 and 1830, "to dance the Paddington frisk" meant to be hanged, that "painted mischief" is an obsolete term for playing cards, and that "paff!" is a contemptuous colloquial interjection, no longer used...
...Paff, Paff, Paff! Whether it is worth reading may remain a matter of debate but dirty it is. The word has no legal status, but as it is commonly used. Cancer is a very dirty book indeed. Saying so, the critic runs the risk of being called an anti-intellectual or, worse yet, a square. But in this case, perhaps, the higher sophistication lies on the side of squareness-in the sense that the most cogent objections to Chatterley were voiced not in court or in the newspapers, which all tried hard to be broadminded, but in the intellectual pages...