Word: peevish
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...research on Theodore Roosevelt. His contemporaries talked of T.R.'s "sweetness." Even Roosevelt's political opponent Woodrow Wilson was smitten. "There is a sweetness about him that is very compelling," he said. "You can't resist the man." Mark Twain, William Jennings Bryan and even the peevish Henry Adams all were beguiled at one time or another, according to Morris...
Morbid, introspective and peevish, De Chirico belonged to the company of the great convalescents: Cavafy, Leopardi, Proust. The city was his sanatorium and, as a fabricator of images that spoke of frustration, tension and ritualized memory, he had no equal. No wonder the surrealists adored his early work and adopted its strategies wholesale. The "illusionist" painters among them, Dali, Ernst, Tanguy and Magritte, all came out of early De Chirico, a lineage astutely discussed by Laura Rosenstock in the catalogue; and as another contributor, Wieland Schmied, points out, German painters in the '20s like George Grosz used Chirican motifs...
...Upstream begins way downstream, as two middle-class English couples prepare to set off together on a seven-day holiday up the River Orb. Trouble begins with a peevish squabble between Keith (Robin Bowerman), who organized the party, and his wife June (Carole Boyd). The next morning the Hadforth Bounty, Britain in miniature, starts its uncertain journey to Armageddon Bridge-where, as in the Bible, good and evil will meet in final conflict...
William Trevor is an Irish-born novelist and short-story writer highly regarded for the had understated manner in which he suggests that quot;real life" and other a illusions may be dangerous to one's health. His deadpan style disguises a compassion for the peevish, the confused and the lonely. The Old Boys (1964) and The Boarding House (1965) had funny moments; yet the novels' deeper impressions were made by sympathy for the elderly and middle-aged attempting to preserve a fleeting respectability. The Love Department (1967) rollicked along on the efforts of a lovelorn columnist...
Some will call this a peevish jeremiad. I am quite aware that it is a luxury to feel distress in response to this type of incident. My experience is not equivalent to or representative of the problems facing most blacks in this country; it is almost trivial when thousands upon thousands of blacks are denied the most basic rights and opportunities. But I can and will not deny the particulars of my own life, and the racism which I have described, while a more subtle, less ubiquitous form than most, is only the next level up in the undistinguished hierarchy...