Word: swaffer
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Hannen Swaffer, peninsula-nosed old bonebag who rattled out such fee-faw-fum dramatic criticism that London's Laborite Daily Herald turned him loose on the Tories, arrived in Manhattan with his hair in its usual bun, his tongue as tart as ever. Two new Swafferisms: 1) on Winston Churchill-"[His] opposition . . . has been childishly futile"; 2) on Britain's No. 1 Cinemagnate J. Arthur Rank, who attends to Methodism no less than moneybags-"I don't think there is any Methodism in his madness...
Winston Churchill was quoted by Columnist Hannen Swaffer in the London Herald as remarking at a dinner party: "There will soon come a time when the sands will run out and I shall pay a little visit to the country to write a few notes on the events of the past five years...
Ardent defense witnesses included the egocentric gossip columnist of the London Daily Herald, Hannen Swaffer, whose story was that he and a committee of four others had once tested Mrs. Duncan's spectral powers, tied her securely with handcuffs, sashcord and thread, watched her wriggle loose in three minutes. Concluded Swaffer: "There was ectoplasm, but no one appeared. Obviously she had been released by Albert, the spirit guide...
...Nazi broadcast boasted that "every three-star Baedeker attraction" in Britain would be blasted to bits. Britons got a chuckle when Critic Hannen Swaffer pointed out Baedeker's niggardliness with asterisks for things British. Fact is that two stars is the highest accolade given in any country by Baedeker. "Perhaps the German braggarts," mused Swaffer, "have been indulging in Three-Star Brandy...
Foreign Secretary Eden tried to wriggle out of his faux pas by saying that he fully realized that the "essence of the [Nazi] creed and the essence of German practice for the last 100 years is that they are aggressive animals." Daily Mail Columnist Hannen Swaffer jumped on this with the question: "When did Eden find this out? On Tuesday when criticism appeared? On Wednesday when M.P.s of all parties began to murmur...