Word: pretending
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...fool whom God sees, whenever a suitable occasion arises. And it is humiliating to think how much of our unpublished thought process is devoted to doing just the opposite-trying to put ourselves in the right, to mask our ignorances, to explain away our failures, to pretend that the gaffe meant something else. Oh, we laugh at ourselves in private, that costs us nothing. We even amuse our friends, and cultivate a reputation for modesty, by dwelling on the record of our own discomfitures-afterwards, when we are in safe company. But really to put aside our selfesteem, and follow...
...second is life as chronicled in the gossip columns, which pretend to take the reader into the star's boudoir and living room. In this world, Ava emerges as a femme only slightly less fatale...
...glamor. The first is that a star must not try too hard to woo the public, for the public reacts in the same way as a man who is chased too hard; indifferent Ava fulfills that condition. Prerequisite No. 2: a glamor girl must enjoy sex, rather than just pretend to enjoy it on the screen; Hollywood's enthusiastic consensus is that Ava Gardner fulfills that condition, too. Prerequisite No. 3: the glamor girl must have an inner authority and economy (i.e., poise). This quality Ava Gardner still lacks, but she may some day acquire...
...Maupassant, he wrote: "You must-believe me, young man-you must do more work. I am coming to suspect you of being somewhat of an idler. Too many tarts, too much rowing and too much exercise. A cultured man has not as much need of exertion as doctors pretend...
...Reimann does not pretend to know what causes periodic disease, but he believes it is a good thing to have the puzzling facts known: if periodic disease is recognized, victims may be spared useless operations (such as appendectomies) and tedious treatments to no purpose...