Word: prosaic
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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This year the Chancellor, whose single pronouncement could make millions of Britons richer or poorer, was Peter Thorneycroft, 47, a smooth, somewhat over-groomed son of a Tory ironmaster. On his first budget outing, Thorneycroft kept to the traditions by droning a prosaic prognosis of the nation's economic health until 4:30, the hour the Stock Exchange closed. Then, safe at last to let his secrets out, the youthful-looking Chancellor raised his voice and announced bold changes in the country's tax setup...
...Newsweek, has implied that Harvard should not have given this honor to a man whose discretion has been challenged. Mr. Moley, citing Adlai Stevenson, Chester Bowles, and Hugh Gaitskell, the last three Godkin lecturers, further implies that Harvard "is more concerned with repairing damaged careers than in the more prosaic task of pursuing and disseminating the truth." In judging the University's selection of its guest lecturers, Newsweek's analyst has suggested that "Harvard is haunted by the faint smell of witches burned centuries ago and is obsessed by the belief that the public is always wrong...
Although unintelligible to most, these mystic calligraphs seem to bring the flavor of the fabled East to prosaic Harvard Yard. The dragon's crouched readiness, with his thick neck thrust defiantly forward, is an impressive sight. Ivy in relief climbs the marble's side, reaching for the top, fourteen feet away. And on the rear, in letters worn by the hand of time, appear these words, "Don was here...
...Socialist ideals--social equality, equal opportunity, full employment, and industrial democracy--yet he is not, as one English reporter commented recently, either a romantic or a poet. "No sounds of gurgling milk or honey come to him as he marches through the wilderness. The promised land is a very prosaic place...
Just how the three Clearing House handicappers combine their predictions to work out the odds quoted to customers is their big trade secret. But they collect their information in a perfectly prosaic manner: they subscribe to 59 daily and Sunday newspapers, study 97 college papers (including the Harvard Crimson and Yale Daily News). "We don't hire coaches or students to work for us as agents," says Hirschfield. But so accurate are his odds over the long run that the rumor-however unfounded-persists that he has knowing operatives on every campus...