Word: sordidity
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Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill. Oldtimers bitterly blamed the shrinkage of the Kemsley empire on uninspired management and unbudging conservatism both in politics and news treatment (Kemsley demands "clean crime, not sordid crime"). Newsmen especially resented how Kemsley shut down the Sunday Chronicle without an advance word to his staff. One reporter was phoning in a football story when the operator cut him off in the middle: "Sorry, sir, the paper has been discontinued." Left March. The staunch Tory politics of the Kemsley Glasgow papers will veer left of center under New Owner King, who considers himself an independent...
This end, like all of the tale, is grim. There is almost no change of tone and no relief in the story, and in this certainly lies much of its oppressiveness. "Our tale begins in darkness and ends in darkness," Prokosch begins, and he pursues the sordid, the unhealthy, and the cruel throughout the book with what appears to be a devotion to some mistaken ideal of honesty. The only other explanation of his over-frequent descriptions of torture and disease would be an intent to please or attract readers through their sheer sadism...
...Something." Next day, the coroner's inquest was held, and the sordid story came out. Only two days before Doris had died, her family physician examined her and said she appeared to be six weeks pregnant. The mother "wasn't very happy," pleaded with him to "do something about it," apparently so it would not block the divorce she hoped Doris would get. Doris' husband, the son of a well-heeled Chicago fuel dealer, later explained: "Doris' mother thought she was too good for any boy, including...
...Egmont M. Krischke of Southwestern Brazil backed up by Bishop Isabelo de los Reyes of the Philippine Independent Church and the Right Rev. Louis C. Melcher, Bishop of Central Brazil. Roman Catholic Latin Americans in rural areas, said Bishop Krisschke, have "their illiteracy and credulity exploited in a most sordid way " and in the cities better educated Catholics "are giving up what they suppose to be the Christian faith, but which is actually only a medieval version...
...this Caesar is worth six of Marius." Caesar went off to soldier in Asia, at 18, and won both honor and disgrace. For saving the life of a fellow soldier in combat, he was decorated with the cherished Civic Crown. Flawless in courage, he also showed a streak of sordid opportunism...