Word: peevishly
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...wonderful, full of interesting harmonies and surprising contrasts. Unfortunately, the beauty of his work is too often obliterated by the shoddy instrumental delivery or weak chorus, if not utterly disguised by the distractingly awful acting. Dido, even in her more musically successful moments, maintains a dreadful expression of peevish nervousness. Even as Belinda liltingly intones of the beautiful queen, "Her eyes confess the flame her tongue denies," all that this reviewer could observe in Bruckmann's eye was a sour distaste for the whole situation...
...Take, for example, the survey courses History 10a and 10b, which seem to be natural candidates for the History A Core requirement. These classes, which provide a considerable breadth of knowledge as well as a solid introduction to the methods of historical study, were turned down for the most peevish of reasons: They didn't precisely fit the description of the Core divisions Historical Studies A or B. This leads us to believe that the Core administrators, rather than fostering a "broad education," are more interested in their own parochial program...
...proposal last year which would have added the European survey classes History 10a and 10b to the Historical Study Core area. These classes, which provide a considerable breadth of knowledge as well as a solid introduction to the methods of historical study, were turned down for the most peevish of reasons: they didn't precisely fit the description of Historical Studies...
...steady a diet of excursions that lead only to more excursions, of interruptions of prior interruptions, can render readers peevish. Ultimately, The Unconsoled suggests a considerable talent pursuing a questionable achievement. Ishiguro has created the literary equivalent of an endless bad dream: the fright engendered by impossible expectations, the frustration of feeling powerless to deflect an apparently inevitable slide toward shame and ruin. But Ryder's ordeal seems less malevolent than capricious. He is the benumbed victim of nothing more sinister than a patchy memory and a tight schedule. Why reproduce a free-floating nightmare when the real thing lurks...
Brendan Fraser is wooden as Monty, but Monty is a wooden character--so in a way, this seems appropriate. While Josh Hamilton goes a little overboard as the peevish pre-med, the actors who play the other roommates give strong supporting performances. Moira Kelly is a friendly, energetic Courtney, one of the boys...yet very much a woman. And Patrick Dempsey, as Everett the WHRB deejay, is joyously lusty. Dempsey has played a debauched Harvard man before--namely, Jack Kennedy in the "Reckless Youth" miniseries. This reviewer can only hope Dempsey will play a debauched Harvard man again...