Word: pattering
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...Chris Evert was always slight and something of a hitless wonder. Her backhand was so weak that her tennis-pro father, Jim Evert, taught her to hit the shot with both hands. Though she goes far toward making up in precision what she lacks in power, her pitter-patter serves and lack of a strong volley proved her ultimate undoing at Forest Hills. In the five months since, however, she not only polished her game but grew a full inch taller and five pounds heavier. (She is now 5 ft. 5 in. and weighs 115 Ibs.) As a result, there...
...razzmatazz, Godspell just about succeeds. Set on an empty stage backed by a chain link fence (part schoolyard, part concentration camp, tres modern), God spell manages to overcome its environment--and, to some extent, its genre. The parables and paradoxes which Christ produces--like a magician running through his patter--are really just excuses for songs and jokes and snappy impersonations. And so, the father of the prodigal son is made to speak like Jimmy Cagney and when he announces the homecoming celebration somebody shouts, "Let's Conga!" After all, no one's going to listen to that old story...
...trouble was that the crickets kept coming, and they were twice the size of the common cricket found in the U.S. At night, the patter of crickets landing on roof tiles was like the sound of rain, which the town had seldom heard in recent years. Turning out the mercury vapor lamps helped little; the crickets invaded lighted houses instead. Turning out indoor lights meant a darkness in which crickets suddenly lit on eyes or mouths or necks. Worst of all was the sickening crunch of crickets underfoot and the unending chirp-chirp-chirp of their monotonous serenade...
...years ago, jokes about the star-crossed Edsel were a part of almost every comedian's patter. For employees at Ford's Lincoln-Mercury Division, which produced the car, it only hurt when audiences laughed. Bedeviled by bad timing and uneven management, the whole division had become a career junkyard for faltering executives and a rugged boot camp for beginners. Beyond Edsel, Lincoln-Mercury's models offered little individuality. They were nothing but larger, costlier Fords. Sales fell so low that many Lincoln-Mercury dealers were forced to depend on used-car sales...
...move in reverse, a feat whose parallel can only be found in the trickery that cinema allows. The second crescendo is Alexis Smith's Story of Lucy and Jessie, a flame-red, high-kicking number in the old top-hat-and-tails tradition, an echo of a Cole Porter patter song...