Word: stolid
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Less than 48 hours later, the big, stolid textile millionaire who has governed France for ten shaky months bowed his head before the hushed Deputies. "The government has just learned that the central redoubt of Dienbienphu has fallen . . ." said he. "In the face of this reverse . . . France will have the virile reaction of a great nation." Without signal, the Deputies of France rose to their feet-all but the many Deputies of the Communist Party (and one ex-Gaullist). In their smug disdain for the dead of Dienbienphu, the Communists who call themselves Frenchmen showed their true colors...
Outside this titillating company stands the stolid Turk. He does not need to be sold on antiCommunism. U.S. aid moves him to sober appreciation, not to riot. He considers it a privilege to fight Communism in Korea-and there is no neutralism...
Last week Turkey's head man, solid, stolid President Celal Bayar, came to the U.S. He shook the proper hands, placed the proper wreaths on the proper tombs, beamed the proper smiles and said the proper words to Congress, diplomats and the press. His mission had no specific goal beyond an expression of friendship-no protests to make, no new loans or grants to ask-all in all, a colorless performance by the standards to which Americans have become accustomed...
...essay, the music symbolized an amazing story. In 1953, only eight years after the shame, horror and impotence of defeat in mankind's bloodiest war, Germany came back. It was a world power once more. More than any other, the person who brought this about was the stolid old man who stood in Arlington, visibly moved by the strains of his national anthem echoing among the tombstones. He was Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of the West German Republic, apostle of United Europe, 1953's Man of the Year...
Next came the French. Joseph Laniel, the husky, stolid Norman industrialist who governs precariously as France's 19th postwar Premier, slipped in like a silent bystander, unable to speak English, unwilling to say much anyway-lest it offend those back home who were considering him as a candidate for France's next President. At his side was pale, ailing Foreign Minister Georges Bidault. The two Frenchmen mistrust each other; in fact, through the 18-hour flight from Paris, the Premier spoke not a word to the Foreign Minister. Neither was sure he would even be in office...