Word: steeplejack
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Says Editor Mencken: "I have heard them all, but he was the best." Critic Huneker is generally credited with having been "the chief man in the movement of the '90s on this side of the ocean." Among his books: Chopin: The Man and His Music; Ivory Apes and Peacocks; Steeplejack; Painted Veils...
When the boring competition ended, Betty Wilson, a swimmer, and Howard Williams, a steeplejack and flagpole sitter, were tied for first prize. Promoter Crandall suggested that they talk off the tie. The gab fest cost Promoter Crandall $12,000 and he derived no financial profit from his game...
Meantime, keyed to the vortices of Presidential elections are the individuals involved or hopeful of being involved. The experience of each Candidate persuades him that his unique self may be the historic medium of an intensely interested multitude. Or else he is like a steeplejack, undizzied by his altitude in public affairs and intent on mending the weathervane, or crowing as a weathercock...
...Times, World. To James Gibbons Huneker is attributed the remark "Nothing succeeds like insincerity." His influence is seen in the writing of such critics as George Jean Nathan who love to employ dynamite prose for blowing up anything at all just to see how it looks in little bits. "Steeplejack" Huneker, as he was known, liked to exasperate the uplifters of the late Victorian era by his disgraceful behavior. Many a stein of beer he quaffed in scandalous company. Many an adventure he enjoyed because no proper person would. Slyly he defended the social standing of young ladies with bodies...
...Kelly, 19, aggressive and redhaired, ministered to her husband from the base of the flagpole by a system of hoisting cords. She recalled to newsgatherers that he won the nickname "Shipwreck" after surviving the Titanic disaster (1912), then entered the U. S. Navy, and, after the War, became a steeplejack, human fly, airplane stunt performer and "marathon rooster...