Word: parvenues
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...book's pursuit of such themes produces a succession of well-turned tales. In particular the saga of Edward Gilbert, parvenu builder of a short-lived empire in construction materials, is a fine financial version of The Great Gatsby. Along the way, Brooks tells of how investors got fleeced and shows some of the major changes in the social ambience of Wall Street, most notably the temporary replacement of the old-line leadership by a crew of sideburned young "gunslingers." Throughout, Brooks steadily returns to his grand theme, which is Greek tragedy: financial hubris-exemplified by the belief that...
...food a longer shelf life, but they may also cause disease. As the latter-day Poor Richard, Barry Commoner, has observed: "There is no such thing as a free lunch." Nonetheless, that illogical meal remains the most actively sought of all contemporary national goals. (On the other hand, the parvenu naturalists attack the machine as a malignant monster - though, if pollution is ever to be overcome, it will not be by nature but by technology.) The list of equally absurd goals remains endless. After years of generously funded studies, pundits announce what the canny observer has concluded without aid: that...
...TIME, March 8, 1968), was built on the somehow delightful confrontation between an anti-Semitic old man and a Jewish nine-year-old. In Marry Me, Marry Me, Berri finds legitimate laughter in the plight of a pregnant bride-to-be, her philandering fiance, and parvenu in-laws who behave like outlaws...
...young librarian named Neil Klugman (Richard Benjamin) meets vacationing Cliffie Brenda Patimkin (Ali MacGraw). Neil is a wry, unfocused dropout, from both college and society. Sleek and chic, Brenda has had not only her nose fixed but her psyche as well. Her mother (Nan Martin) is a fashionably haggard parvenu who objects to Neil's background, his manners and, most important, his drab occupation. Brenda's father (Jack Klugman) commits a more serious sin-he trusts his daughter and lets her know...
...Senate expected a spoiled parvenu, it found instead a diligent, diffident, intelligent freshman who avoided publicity as well as a Kennedy could, and concentrated on the business of his committees and his state. While an undergraduate at Harvard, Ted had once been suspended for having another student take a Spanish exam for him. As a Senator, he has never been caught with homework undone. He made courtesy calls on his elders, including those with whom he completely disagreed. When Mississippi's James Eastland, chairman of the Judiciary Committee of which Kennedy was a member, entertained him in an early...