Word: solemn
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...these people smile that one wonders if it is not symptomatic of some neurological disorder, for in the past twelve issues of China there are actually no more than four persons without beaming grins of ecstasy. Those four, incidentally, are professing solidarity with representatives of other countries, circumstances too solemn presumably for those lovely smiles...
Everywhere he went, his tune was the same: "I want to try to change things, to use whatever influence I have for welfare, peace and the brotherhood of man." Everywhere he was on his best behavior. In Japan, he ignored geisha comforts for the sake of solemn discussions of international politics. In Israel, he drank honeyed tea, spent evenings visiting kibbutz farmers, mornings sunning himself in the private glory of red pajamas...
Disarmament is impossible in the foreseeable future. Everyone knows this except a few sentimentalists. Yet West, East and neutrals continue the solemn game of pretending that some sort of disarmament deal can be reached. The harm of the game, to the West, is that it fosters illusions. The advantage is that more and more it shows up the Russians as phony champions of peace...
...Jarrell writing about writers is another matter; his virtues are exactly those that Alfred Kazin lacks. Jarrell understands that what is serious need not be solemn. The scales of justice are part of his equipment, of course, but they are a lighter model than the vast, slow-swinging mechanism that burdens Kazin. After following Jarrell's ardent and scholarly puffs for the short stories of Kipling or the poems of Eleanor Taylor, the reader feels that life will not be supportable without these stories or these poems. Kazin's approval of a writer, however well thought out, inspires...
Were Maudling's hopes illusory? Hardly had the Kenya Africans stepped off their planes in Nairobi when squabbling broke out among the leaders, notably KANU'S grey-bearded Jomo ("Burning Spear'') Kenyatta. 72. and solemn Ron ald Ngala, 39, president of KADU,* and since 1961 top African in the Kenya cabinet. Though Kenyatta and Ngala will jointly head Kenya's interim govern ment, they sounded like enemies. Bragged Ngala to his supporters on arrival: "KADU has emerged triumphant and has won out against Kenyatta.'' Old Jomo had a sneering retort: "We would have...