Word: rueful
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...notion of this paradigm of nobility mixing it up with modern dance seemed absurd. But a closer look at the record reveals he was already seeking out alliances with modern choreographers. When Twyla Tharp created Push Comes to Shove for him in 1976, she revealed a whole new Misha: rueful, droll, an outsider trying to get in -- and just as eagerly bursting...
That was a brave thing to say in a roomful of presidential scholars. But other men and women in the room nodded, a bit rueful. Many Americans feel that way, I believe, because Kennedy passed the great test of democratic leadership: he brought out the best in most of his people most of the time...
...door of the White House with the guests, headed toward some secret rendezvous in the West Wing, where they run the world. "Takes some adjusting," I muttered, mindful of the problems over appointments and the firing of the Travel Office personnel. "You're telling me," he replied with a rueful laugh. Remember, he was reminded, that trouble is the main business of Washington. Without controversy the city is out of work. Keep laughing. But he didn't -- as we now know...
...steady stream of badinage that buoys the whole movie along. But these exchanges evaporate, and the movie is surprisingly flat visually. There comes a moment when you realize how wrong just being funny is for Allen. Ambition is an essential goad to his sensibility. It pushes him toward the rueful resonances of those previous Brickman collaborations and toward the magical transformations of reality in The Purple Rose of Cairo and Radio Days...
...Barkley's burden, then, is that he cannot be other than himself ("That's Charles just being Charles" is the rueful and affectionate comment of those around him), Jordan's is that he cannot be other than immortal. Barkley reminds us again and again that he is not sufficiently recognized; Jordan doubtless feels that he is recognized too much. Barkley, in fact, seems not so different from the laughing and imprudent rest of us. The new Sun, you could say, is a hero because he is so human -- overweight, gregarious, hotheaded, a 6-ft. 5-in. man who, through willpower...