Word: standoffish
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...lark" back in 1975, Feinstein recalls, she and two women friends forced their way into the off-limits gentlemen's dining room of an exclusive club. Nevertheless, today feminists outside San Francisco tend to blow hot and cold about Feinstein. Some find her standoffish. Assemblywoman DeLaine Eastin of Fremont, among others, complains that as mayor, Feinstein appointed many more men than women, gave short shrift to women's issues and failed to support a number of other women candidates. "Let's face it," says Eastin, "she has not been a team builder for women...
...wanted an American Century or a minimal state, you could not be comfortable with Soviet aggrandizement. Lenin was anathema whether your philosophical polestar was Thomas Aquinas or Ayn Rand. Like an offensive guest at a lousy party, Communism drew together a lot of people who would otherwise have been standoffish...
...Moscow about how they should deal with Reagan, whether they need to bargain with him seriously or whether they can just wait for the next President." Reagan's decision last week to abandon the unratified SALT II ceilings on strategic weapons is likely to make Moscow even more standoffish...
...welcoming delegation at the Moscow airport. Under the current Soviet sobriety crackdown, there was no vodka either. The choice of an elegant suburban dacha for the talks was intended to encourage constructive informality for discussions normally cemented in rigid protocol. But behind the lace curtains, the Soviets proved standoffish...
...difficulty in agreeing on what to call one another. In England it is considered very proper and Oxbridgian to address a man simply by his last name. Most Americans call one another by their first names, even if they have just met. Except in Anglophile circles, many consider it standoffish, if not rude, to address a fellow worker as Mr. Jones. On the other hand, a fair number of people still dislike being patted on the shoulder and called Harry by someone who is trying to sell something. Women, in particular, object to being addressed as Susan by a doctor...