Word: slavishly
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...small, neatly shod feet. Joyce had been vain about his feet since his youth, when poverty forced him to go about Dublin in a pair of white tennis shoes, the only footwear he owned. It is impossible to know if Joyce was even aware of Beckett's slavish gesture, for his eyes were so weak that he saw very little. What is intriguing about this imitative gesture is the sacrificial element involved in the picture of Beckett, suffering terribly from huge corns and terrible calluses, walking only with great pain. He must have pulled off his shoes in much...
What Wootten strives to keep is a remarkable rapport with his players. When he began coaching in the '50s, the role model for his profession was a Marine drill instructor: shouting, short hair and slavish obedience. But Wootten encouraged his players to call him by his first name. Although he insists on tidy hair and coats and neckties on game day, Wootten allows the team to vote, by secret ballot, on training rules. His simple, if heretical explanation: "The team sets the rules because it's their team...
These were and are legitimate cautions. There is ample truth in the cliché that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it. But it is also true that slavish adherence to past precepts is the enemy of political creativity. Sadat's extravagant gamble made it possible for all parties concerned to think of the Middle East problem in a nontraditional way. Courageously, he broke a pattern of stalemate and mutual hostility between Israel and Egypt, the most populous and politically powerful of Arab states. Sadat's countrymen welcomed him home from his peacemaking voyage with ululations...
...advocating slavish imitation of one established procedure or another, only pointing out that, if the student professional is not fully conversant with the best of current thinking, he will not make the best use of his education. Re-inventing the wheel, unless consciously used as an educational device, is unlikely to be the best use of the student's time...
...movie, misunderstood and ignored on its first release. Now should be just the time for another look at it. The movie features portraits of Holmes (by Robert Stephens) and Watson (by Colin Blakely) that are virtually definitive and thoroughly captivating. Director Wilder showed respect for Conan Doyle, with out slavish devotion, and managed to make the two sleuths real men even as he dealt with them as myths. Watching The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, which tries to do much the same thing, is mostly a reminder of how richly Wilder succeeded...