Word: shiftlessness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Shiftless Schemers. The Japanese bear no grudge against Pinocchio himself, who in Collodi's tale is afflicted with disabilities enough before achieving his dream of becoming a flesh-and-blood boy. Their objections focus on the book's two ne'er-do-wells, the Fox and the Cat, shiftless schemers posing as mendicants who are lame (the Fox) and blind (the Cat), while merrily fleecing the gullible young puppet. By the end of the tale, the Cat is truly sightless and minus a paw, while the Fox does not fare too well either?he ends up thin, almost hairless...
...stumbled onto a lot of shiftless people by the end of the summer; you could say I was more or less one of them: never pausing in a particular place for longer than a day or two, breaking away from friends when I'd barely found them out, too often moving on reluctantly. It was pretty awesome how much company I had: all of us feeling trapped in perpetual transit, even though some of us knew we were slated to come to a standstill, eventually, in this house or on that date...
...possibility of getting lost in a place like Central Square; not now, perhaps only figuratively speaking, but Central Square reminds them of the possibility. Their association with Harvard, on the other hand, is supposed to assure that they'll never be trapped in a community that seems sort of shiftless, sort of dreary and ordinary...
...grey-working-class suburb of Milan. A Brief Vacation is the temporary escape illness provides for Clara (Florinda Balkan) from the crushing situation in which she is trapped. While her husband recovers from an industrial accident. Clara must support him, their two small children, his senile mother, and his shiftless brother. On her feet all day holding an acetylenc torch in a metals plant. Clara spends the rest of her time running the household. If she doesn't change a sick child's bandage or decide whether the dinner eggplant should be sliced or diced it doesn't get done...
...sidelines-view of University politics which I was afforded (and the complaints I was privy to) gave two lasting impressions; it was generally petty and generally bitter. The occasional shiftless or dishonest fellow administrator was perhaps more aggravating than students, who were at least sincere. But these administrators hid behind a shield of respectability unavailable to students. While students felt they had to work outside the system, some administration felt they could go underneath...