Word: robustness
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...with Labor's leaders still entertaining a robust distrust of British Communists, there was little chance of a Labor convention voting on the Communist request. Harry Pollitt was well aware of this when he wrote his letter last week. But Harry Pollitt had a purpose: the Communists are now on record in favor of unity on the Left, and this may win them new adherents-at Labor's expense...
Devout readers may be startled by Author Douglas' robust retelling of parables and miracles, by his free & easy manner with the Apostles ("Peter has no polish . . ."). Classical scholars may wince at his slangy jollities in matters Roman ("Life wouldn't be worth a punched denarius"). Psychologists will nod retroactively when Marcellus has "reasons for surmising that [Antonia] was a victim of repression." Wodehouse fans will note the Jeeves-like quality of Bodyguard Demetrius ("You will need some heavier sandals, sir ... a shower and a rubdown put you in order. I have laid out fresh clothing...
Though he rejoices in this coming revolution, Bernanos' mind is too robust and honest not to know the chances against its taking a Christian form. It is "doubtful that the atrocious deception of our people would let them return at first to the dogmas of our faith." They may accept rather what they think is a dictatorship of the proletariat, not knowing until later that any dictatorship is in the end a dictatorship of bureaucrats and police. Bernanos evidently prefers even this prospect to a clerical Fascism. Facing it, he maintains that "we Christians hold ourselves responsible for human...
...Carmen to Ortrud or Amneris to Delilah at the drop of a spear. An exception among opera singers (most of whom have to have their parts drilled into them by coaches and conductors), she could sit down at the piano and teach herself the most taxing roles. Always a robust Brünnehilde, Matzenauer became one of the most prodigious (203 Ib.) singers ever to prance the operatic proscenium. She married and divorced three husbands. The last of them (a California chauffeur named Floyd Glotzbach) she once fondly described as "100 per cent a man." Margaret Matzenauer sternly disapproves...
Next day glib, robust Aneurin Bevan, Welsh Laborite and cofounder (with Sir Stafford Cripps) of the leftist weekly Tribune, rose in Parliament to attack Churchill. Said he: "Mr. Churchill is no longer able to summon the spirit of the British people because he represents policies they deeply distrust." Laborite Bevan was so biliously personal that even London's most liberal columnist, A. J. Cummings of the News Chronicle, called him "an arch-exhibitionist . . . who gave a deplorable exhibition of bad manners, bad temper and bad criticism...