Word: patchwork
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
President Giovanni Leone was forced to call the election a year ahead of schedule-the statutory term for a Parliament is five years -since the country's imperfect governmental system had once again worked imperfectly. The latest patchwork Christian Democratic government, headed by Premier Aldo Moro, finally collapsed last month after the Socialist Party withdrew its necessary support. Leone had no choice but to let the voters make a fresh choice, under a parliamentary system that in 30 years has produced nearly 40 revolving-door governments...
...microphone grumbled, "Why the hell aren't they playing?" Apart from that minor gaffe, the world premiere of That's Entertainment, Part 2, and an accompanying 77th birthday party for Dancer Fred Astaire came off without a missed step. The film, which like Part 1 is a patchwork of old MGM movie clips, made its debut at Manhattan's Ziegfeld Theater with the help of a chorus line of venerable hoofers (Donald O'Connor, 50, Cyd Charisse, 53, and Marge Champion, 52), one retired Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller, 71) and a true MGM golden-ager, Cory Grant...
...patchwork nature of the plot also makes it difficult to divine morals from the tale. Canfield is both guilty and a victim of circumstance. One is tempted to look for similarities between Canfield's fate and Agnew's, but there are simply too few parallels between the two cases and not enough clues in the book...
Evidently, the Hughes relatives appreciated the importance of keeping the empire operating smoothly until there is a final settlement. Indeed, if ever an empire cried out for effective management, it is Hughes'. A patchwork business, it was haphazardly acquired, often when Hughes was in a rush to invest company earnings that he would otherwise have been forced to pay himself as highly taxable profits...
Adjusting the levers on his four-track console, Jamaican Record Producer Lee Perry does absent-minded dance steps on a patchwork carpet composed of Ethiopia's national colors. On the studio side of the control booth's soundproof window, a singer implores "Jah," the black god who many Jamaicans believe was Haile Selassie, to deliver him from Babylon. Seated on the floor are half a dozen musicians whose hair is plaited into myriad ominous, serpentine "dreadlocks." Each man reverently smokes a large, cone-shaped "splif" filled with marijuana, and all nod agreeably whenever the singer alludes to Africa...