Word: skillful
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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There are basically two kinds of classes at this University, "talking classes" and "listening classes" (I am sure there are some hybrids, but for the purposes of this editorial, two groupings will suffice). Government classes tend to fall into the former category. The essential skill required for these courses and the primary ability for which reward is distributed is articulation--oral and written. In talking classes, flexing is a necessary evil for some and a way of life and success, glory and narcissism for others. I have seen students in these classes engage concurrently in monologues masquerading as a conversation...
...intention to bash the government department. If nothing else, my experiences in government classes have taught me how to think in an organized and systematic fashion, thus allowing me to hone a skill which I will carry with me and utilize no matter what path my life takes. However, one can learn how to think in a botany class, a digital circuits class, or a psychology class all without the aggressive and adversarial undertones which pervade my department. In short, being a hunter is far more unpleasant than it needs to be, if it needs...
Richard LaGravenese is one of the few screenwriters left who can write smart dialogue for grownups to speak, but that skill only occasionally distracts from the desperation of his basic conceit. Bridges is a terrific actor, but, putting it mildly, he's miscast in the Doris Day role. And Streisand is a terrific presence, but also a performer who never forgets who she really is. Since she directed, co-produced and wrote Mirror's love theme, she is not about to let us forget it, either. "Second Hand Roses" have been part of her act, part of her calculations...
These people, in fact, have a lesson for the rest of us. Their thick-skinned self confidence is a skill we all need to master, for those who don't will go through life besieged by a fundamental unhappiness reinforced by each failure and only temporarily alleviated by success. And finally, those of us who simply can't develop this skill should probably sit back, relax and realize that for them, happiness and ambition are inherently antithetical...
...night before it was due and eventually not studying for a midterm at all. Before long I was not doing well anymore, but at the same time I was not doing badly. I was the queen of the perpetual B and B+. I was rather pleased with my new skill--give classes my least, unless something particularly interesting was happening and forgetting about it. I even convinced myself that my large economics classes were bringing this behavior out in me, and that I could always do better if I wanted...