Word: shrewd
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Died. Sergio Osmeña. 83. second president (1944-46) of the pre-independence Philippine Commonwealth, a shrewd, patient public servant who contributed a rare note of moderation to Philippine politics for nearly 40 years; of a heart and kidney ailment; in Manila. A landowner's son of part-Chinese ancestry, Osmeña began his campaign for Philippine independence after the suppression of the 1899 insurrection against U.S. rule, rose from speaker of the first Philippine Assembly to vice president of the Commonwealth, succeeded to the presidency of the Philippine government-in-exile when fiery Manuel Quezon died...
...relieved Home Secretary Richard Austen Butler, 58, as party chairman and Commons leader. Macmillan's overt aim was to free Butler to act as his personal deputy, and take charge of the group of ministers assigned to handle Britain's crucial negotiations with the European Common Market. Shrewd, tart-tongued "Rab" Butler, who has long been Macmillan's chief rival for 10 Downing Street, was thus removed from the party's nerve center to an assignment that could make or break the government-but will reflect luster, if Britain enters the Common Market on favorable terms...
...lovely things about this kind of playing with Biblical myths is that, after the game's over, the Bible still remains. In this case, Jacob emerges intact after Mr. Gold's wise use of him to represent the dual spirit of the Jews: "Jacob," the grasping, shrewd Jew folk-hero, and "Israel," the man who wrestles with God. I suppose Gold is right, but I always thought Jacob had more of the former in him--particularly the way his troubles in finding a wife snowball like a humorous, extravagant folktale. He hires out for a wife, works seven years only...
...hour, rack by rack, the young challenger draws steadily ahead, grows steadily more arrogant. After 25 hours, playing for $1,000 a game, he is $18,000 in the green. "It's my table!" he crows. "I own it. I'm the best!" On the sidelines a shrewd gambler (George C. Scott) smiles thinly and murmurs to the dazed old king: "Stay with this kid. He's a loser...
Money in Mufti. With smart bidding and shrewd economy, Avco's pretax profit margin has more than doubled since 1957. from 3.4% to 7.6%. "But you can trim costs just so far," admits Wilson. For the future, Avco intends to boost earnings by swinging into more profitable civilian goods, altering its defense-to-civilian sales ratio from the present 60-40 to 50-50. To help achieve this target, it is banking on a rise in industrial use of such products as its turbine engines and heat-shielding devices. "In our forecasts for coming years," says Wilson, "profit increases...