Word: sleight
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...fabric is a weapon in his war against what he calls "the diktats of fashion," whereby certain garments and accessories can be worn only in particular settings -- silk for splendor, denim for fun. In his designs for Chanel, the maestro is mixing up materials -- tweed, denim, grosgrain -- with such sleight of hand that some of his efforts look more formal than his variations on the house's classic...
Sweet dreams, antic dreams, strange dreams: a man strolls onstage with a small marionette in the shape of a coffeepot, then runs off and reappears as a huge percolator walking a tiny man-shaped marionette. A pixilated sleight-of- hand artist puts a bunny in a box (ho-hum), pulls out an air pump (hmmm), attaches same to box and pumps mightily (what?), and finally produces not the expected exploding hare but a live jumbo rabbit who appears to be only slightly smaller than a Shetland. All right, all right -- it's still only a big bunny, but it seems...
...sleight-of-hand plot, which requires the pair to keep marrying and separating, that redeems the picture. The film is so quick and busy that most of the time one forgets they are essentially no-accounts, not entirely bright or likable. Indeed, Simon's admission that they are based on historical models -- shoe magnate Harry Karl and starlet Marie ("the Body") McDonald, whose misadventures in multiple marriage titillated tabloid readers four decades ago -- renders the jolliness of his writing, and Rees' direction, all the more astonishing. They were, perhaps, a very odd couple, but not necessarily a fun couple...
...great budget battle has proved anything, it is that after a decade of political and fiscal sleight of hand, neither party can convincingly claim to be the party of the average American. Democrats may gain a short-term advantage through a "soak the rich" crusade, but in the long run it is likely to backfire if the G.O.P. can convince the electorate that the other party is reverting to its tax-and-spend traditions. The politics of resentment leaves a bitter aftertaste that demagogues can exploit. As the rhetoric escalates between now and Election Day, neither side will earn much...
...government had to use a bit of diplomatic sleight of hand to resolve the standoff. Spokesman Shaw admitted that Robinson had agreed to Bakr's terms, but stressed that the Prime Minister had endorsed the demands under extreme duress, making them nonbinding. "Tricked, double-crossed, whatever you want to call it. It is foolish to quibble with ethics when you are dealing with situations of this kind," said Shaw. "Why not promise them the moon and the stars...