Word: stroking
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Their latest stroke of perverse genius was the demonstration staged in Paris upon the arrival of Leonid Krassin, the first ambassador of Soviet Russia to France. For months, the Soviet government sought recognition from France, and for months the French wavered between rejecting and accepting the Russian protestations of good faith. At last came recognition, and with it. Russian international stock took on a bullish tone...
When the high priests of Israel made sacrifices to the God of Abraham, they followed a ritual in their slaughter of the beast which was both humane and sanitary. Using a long, smooth blade, twice the width of the animal's throat, they severed with a delicate stroke, scrupulously exact, the fourth ventricle of the trembling sheep, permitting the body to lie undisturbed until the blood had thoroughly drained from its lax veins. The ritual has never changed. Meat that is not fit for a sacrifice is, to the orthodox, not fit to eat. If there is any blemish...
...brilliantly lit room. Following the ball's dizzy speed, two agile men, with the eyes of falcons, pursued it, rackets poised. In turn they beat the ball afresh to make it go faster-whack, whack, like pistol shots against the walls. Now and again one would miss his stroke. Now and again came a great clang as the ball crashed into the "tell-tale," or metal strip across the bottom of the front wall. For an hour or so the two men and the little white ball flashed hither and thither in the little red room. Then they desisted...
When the publisher takes his wares to market, a similar selling psychology teaches him that announcement of his table of contents has nowhere near the magnetism of a striking hint, a single graphic stroke of advertising along a popular line. Depending on the elevation of the publisher's mind, this stroke will be "high" or "low"?something between popular religion or popular sex? a brilliant, mental contortion, or a vulgar, scandalizing distortion. Very, very seldom will the stroke be accurately indicative of the nature of the table of contents, or even of the nature of that feature...
...characters were perfectly delineated. Their universality and individuality are brought out from Rickety Anne to Seth Perkins, the Hoboken Terror. Not a stroke was missed in the production, for the sets of the "Old Homestead", "The Street in front of Grace Church: N. Y." and "The Kitchen" were no less perfect than the Swanzey, New Hampshire, Annual Band Concert. Strange to say, even the old jokes which had been dusted off for the occasion were greeted with vociferous laughter and prolonged applause. Handkerchiefs which went up more than once to wipe away a tear were suddenly used to stifle laughter...