Word: plain
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Pakistan's Governor General Ghulam Mohammed and his tight little regime of civil servants and soldiers have suspended the Constituent Assembly, and now rule by decrees. They like to call themselves a "controlled democracy." But they realize that plain old democracy has too good a sound to let their opponents steal it. Last week Ghulam made a canny gesture to win popular support. For his new Minister of Law, he appointed Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, 61, popular leader of the opposition United Front, "and a big man in Bengal, who will now, under "controlled democracy," be expected to get along...
...problems which, in the present temper of the world appear insoluble [e.g.], the unification of Germany. But no problem is insoluble where there is mutual goodwill and where concessions are not regarded by one side as a triumph and by the other as a disgrace. The truth is so plain and simple that it seems as if governments must in time become aware of it: the Communist and non-Communist worlds can live together or die together...
...success, in short, is plain to see; but the secret of it, like the motive force in a Rube Goldberg invention, is hidden in the depths of an astonishing psychological contraption. For though he seems doomed to make millions, Disney is not a businessman; and though occasionally he is capable of fine folk art, he is not an "artist." Furthermore, though he has probably tickled more risibilities than Charlie Chaplin, he does not really have much sense of humor. Walt Disney is a genuine hand-hewn American original with the social adze-marks sticking out all over...
Bobs & Sallies. For change-ringing purposes, a set of eight bells (called "Major") ranging from treble to tenor, are numbered one to eight. At the outset of a Plain Bob Major,t the bells are sounded in sequence (known as "rounds"), i.e., 12345678. Then changes are rung: 2143-6587, 24163857, 42618357, etc., through all the possible combinations. To complicate matters further, variations are obtained when the conductor calls for "bobs" or "singles" (two bells swap their places out of sequence or dodge backwards among other bells). Eight bells have been rung to their full "extent" (40,320 changes) only once...
MADAME DE POMPADOUR, by Nancy Mitford, saw the meeting of a lively writer and an ideal subject. A flashing, witty biography of the mistress of Louis XV that not only described the inane royal world of Versailles but made it plain that the French Revolution was inevitable...