Word: plainte
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Last week's flow of strong earnings reports would probably not drown out the U.S. businessman's perennial plaint about "the profits squeeze," but it did show that well-managed companies can do very nicely even in a non-boom year. Since 1960, with its second-half sag, was no boom year either, some gains in 1961 profits were predictable. But, in fact, substantial increases over 1960 profits were common in oil, chemicals, business machines, electrical equipment and even railroads. Pre-tax profits for U.S. business as a whole increased from $45 billion in 1960 to $46.1 billion...
...Jones industrial index reached new peaks on three successive days last week, hit an alltime high of 734.34 before simmering down to 729.53 at week's end. But while the nation's big businesses rejoiced in this burst of sunshine, a small Los Angeles retailer voiced a plaint from the shady side of the economic street. Said Max Goldstein, owner of a four-store shoe chain: "I think this 'recovery' is bypassing most of us small businessmen...
...Exquisites are anti-life snobs. Life is not pure enough for them. Several times in Happy Days, Winnie scrutinizes the handle of her toothbrush and reads the words "fully guaranteed . . . genuine pure." She and the New Exquisites are bitter because life is not fully guaranteed and genuinely pure. Their plaint is that life is fraudulent, corrupt, conformist, lonely, sad and beastly. The Old Exquisites proclaimed art for art's sake. By finding life devoid of ends and meanings, the New Exquisites proclaim art for the artist's sake as the only alternative and the only affirmation...
...Attention must be paid to such a person," says Mrs. Willy Loman of her husband in Death of a Salesman. It is a poignant plaint, and she repeats it as if she did not quite believe it. The fact is, no one is really convinced that the tormented figures of modern drama have the stature of tragic heroes. The measure of that disbelief is to imagine Jocasta asking an audience to pay attention to Oedipus, or Cordelia to Lear. Try not paying attention to them...
...slum, the Elms is a squalid place to live. During the day a child can be seen, crying but unnoticed, on the step of an entryway. And as evening comes, a teenager can chase a screaming seven-year-old across the project without interference. A mother's plaint is accurate: "The project is no place to bring up a child...