Word: taut
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
DECISION AT DELPHI, by Helen MacInnes (434 pp.; Harcourt, Brace; $4.95), is a reasonably diverting romance that is not as taut as it should be because its tale of dark doings in Greece and Sicily is interleaved with too much travel gush. The author's proposition is that a band of left-of-Moscow terrorists in present-day Greece plans to set the Balkans afire by assassinating Marshal Tito. The wandering innocent who runs afoul of and eventually vanquishes these unpleasant plotters is an American architect named Strang. His wily adversary is a monster of plumbless evil who calls...
Brahms: Concerto No. 2 (Sviatoslav Richter, piano; the Chicago Symphony under Erich Leinsdorf; RCA Victor). In this first Richter recording made in the U.S., the great Russian pianist gives a performance as taut as a bent bow. At the end of the session, Richter turned to Conductor Leinsdorf and said: "Please explain to the orchestra that I could do no better." Nor could anyone...
...morning, Sylvia speeds husband and daughter goodbye with a kiss-kiss; by 8:50, sipping coffee in her bedroom and nervously smoking, she is deep in the business section of the Times and all of the Wall Street Journal. ("Here I don't read; I study.") In 20 taut minutes, a mind that can sponge whole columns at a glance has trapped all that Sylvia needs...
...campaign, Bobby is running a taut ship. He has an abhorrence of laziness, works like a stevedore himself and demands the same kind of dedicated performance of his workers. In return he gives complete loyalty. (When the Senate labor rackets committee was winding up its investigation of corruption in the nation's labor unions, Chief Counsel Bob Kennedy called in each of his 50 hardworking staffers, talked at length about their problems, and arranged at least one job prospect for each man and woman.) Except for a handful of top assistants, Bobby trusts no one, feels compelled to assure...
...game always leaves Patton so taut that he has long given up any thoughts of sleep for that night. With Dick Nolan, the Giants' other safety man, Patton often stalks the deserted streets of Manhattan until dawn. But he makes a special point not to brood about any opposition receiver who got away for a touchdown. "If I could stop every pass," says the Giants' Jimmy Patton, "no one could afford to pay my salary...