Word: sours
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...order rests on an interesting philosophical assumption, a rejection of the liberal 19th century view that any change going by the name of reform means progress. The Great Society social engineering of the '60s has obviously left many Americans with a sour sense that such is not always the case -although others may argue that the reforms simply did not go far enough. In any case, the Journal, more in the spirit of 18th century toryism, will now use such words as revision and change -a more neutral vocabulary. Oliver Goldsmith caught the spirit with his couplet...
...presidency from the events below. They do not want it to falter or be demeaned even though the men in office arrive there by the questionable trade of politics. All politicians, most people understand, can survive only on vast sums in campaign contributions, sometimes degradingly solicited. So while the sour odors of the Watergate continue to leak out around the edges of the White House, the facade of Richard Nixon stands in the long line of presidential legend, tarnished a bit, but not crumbling. Besides, Americans think of Nixon as a sort of quintessential square, a Billy Graham parishioner. They...
...three Apollo 15 astronauts-David Scott, James Irwin and Alfred Worden-had carried 400 unauthorized stamped envelopes to the moon and back, then let 100 of them out for sale through a German philatelist (TIME, July 24). The three never actually profited by the arrangement, but it raised a sour question of exploitation...
Insights can come from sour dreams. But after several such stories the reader may rebel at the some what mechanical process by which the dreams are triggered. Once learned, it is the same trick every time it is done. Barthelme used this single effect to transmute himself with rapidity into a brilliant bore, and it would be a shame if Goldberg repeated that wasteful performance...
...conform to a pattern that is be coming tediously familiar these days. Goldberg follows the form skillfully enough. Like Donald Barthelme he demonstrates not by fantastic apparitions but by a series of warped mundanities, that the familiar world is totally mad. The effect is like the disorientation of a sour dream...