Word: pompously
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...thing is that Macdonald seems to have been listening. The Goodbye Look is overlong for its specious plot, weighted down with pompous prose about lost opportunities, missed communications, failed lives. As in several Macdonald mysteries, the story itself concerns a troubled youth-in this case, a rich college student who may have committed three murders, but because of head wounds and shock, cannot remember whether...
...pains to demonstrate, taking the departments one by one. In fact, in the very long sections of the book justly given over to praise for the dolphins' character and accomplishments, only two bits of dolphin lore escape specific mention. The first is that dolphins seem to be pompous moralizers. The second is that dolphins have not only learned to read and speak English, they have learned to write novels, although not very well...
...Each year the library visiting committee met with us, and each year we told our sad tale. One year, a particular Harvard graduate had written a history of the Supreme Court. He himself was a lawyer. He was particularly well fitted to be long, verbose, tiresome, and pompous. When we told him, as the new chairman of our committee, that we wanted a rare books library, he became indignant and said he thought it was a very poor use of money. In fact, he thought that rare books were utterly useless, and as far as he was concerned, he would...
...triplicate to staunch Harvard Dilbert and Sullivan patrons. John McKean seems to have found, in Ralph Rackstraw, the Gilbertian lead to which he is best suited. The part calls for rapid changes of character: from a caricature of soulfulness to impetuosity to prideful rage to rapture to despair to pompous authority and back, finally, to rapture. That McKean can make so many transitions so rapidly is itself a feat worthy of praise; that he makes them so smoothly and so convincingly is simply amazing...
...figure of Princess Ida, the element of absurdity added by the contrast of her size to that of Jeff Davies is more than worth this minor disadvantage. Davies, the third improved veteran, has what superficially appears an easy task as Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B.; he must consistently be a pompous nurd. However, English nurdiness is not the easiest of qualities to maintain, particularly for a Welshman, and his hysterically funny success in doing so is certainly the strongest characterization in the entire cast...