Word: squirm
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After taking this for a while, Furcolo decided he had to squirm out from under this criticism. So in the keynote speech at its annual convention banquet, Furcolo told the ADA to disband. The public thought them pink, he said, and this weakened not only their work but the chances of any Democratic candidate they supported. Things, he confided, would be better for liberals and Democrats if the ADA faded away. And, leaving the convention to choke on its dessert, Furcolo went out to renew his campaign as "the man who repudiated...
...elected President in 1932; he had put in nearly 30 years fighting for lost political causes, and he seemed almost taken aback at finding himself on the winning side at last. He recovered quickly. In 13 years as Secretary of the Interior, Honest Harold (a nickname that made him squirm) became a national institution. His bristling incorruptibility, his old-fashioned reformer's views, his endless suspicions of all other politicos, his Donald Duck temper and acid-tongued campaign speeches made him a figure unique in the New Deal...
...because the incident "occurred in a different climate of public opinion." Since when do climates of opinion justify dishonesty? In asking whether a possible employee was a Communist, the government of 1944 was worried about the same consequences as the government of 1953. This must have made the Corporation squirm somewhat, for its answer is casual, equivocating, and ambiguous, and as such is a disservice both to Professor Furry and Harvard...
...back none of this sophomoric estimate, but he cannot help confessing that some cheer keeps breaking in on his misanthropy. With frankness and obvious satisfaction, he discusses his sex life and indulges in bland reveries on his numerous seductions. Fellow F.F.V.s who, he remembers, never bought his books will squirm at some of his recollections, if they ever hear about them. Remembers Cabell: "In practice, among the upper circles of the state of Virginia ... a fair number of accessible young gentlewomen whose social standing stayed unquestioned, whether as wives or as spinsters, were no whit averse to extreme amorous dalliance...
...Kefauver committeemen rolled into the nation's largest city last week for the big finale to their investigation of organized crime in the U.S. Before they were done, they had made the legendary Frank Costello squirm in view of millions of television watchers, and provided titillating evidence that unobtrusive Frank Costello was just what they had claimed -the boss of one of the nation's two big crime syndicates (TIME, March 12). They had also charted some tortuous trails that led straight out of Costello's underworld and wound up in ex-Mayor William O'Dwyer...