Word: tempering
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...jazz funeral is beginning in New Orleans. Though hardly disrespectful, the underlying temper is festive. The reason lies in tradition: when the funeral is done, the streets will explode with jubilant jazz and antic celebration. To see it is to understand what Trumpeter Willie Pajaud meant when he said: "I'd rather play a funeral than eat a turkey dinner...
Judging the temper of a President is tricky business. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara grew weary and disillusioned over the Viet Nam War. He brooded about resigning, then began to mention it to friends. Lyndon Johnson, who had called McNamara his right arm, wanted to listen to none of this resignation nonsense-up to a point. But then one day in the winter of 1967 L.B.J. startled everyone, especially McNamara, by accepting his resignation. McNamara's mind told him resigning was right, but his heart was troubled. Somehow the resignation was not meant to have been handled just that...
Talking about his opponents, Watt sounded combative, and his hide showed patches of thinness as he talked of a meeting he had just held with environmentalists. His temper had spilled over, and he had accused the others in the room of deliberately poisoning his reputation. The men present were so astonished at his fury that one of them, Bill Butler of the Audubon Society, warned his staff that Watt was too hostile to deal with right now. There were a couple of wildlife representatives at the meeting, and at one point, during a discussion about predators, Watt made no effort...
Moliere wasn't throwing an artistic temper tantrum; as Vreeland would say, literary elegance backed up his refusal. Most producers have preserved the play with an almost awesome regard to the culture and values of the 17th century. Richard Wilbur broke with tradition by translating Tartuffe into English, but many producers still cling to the idea that the rhyming script demands delivery in a dusty package. The Boston Shakespeare Company's production has, in some ways, smothered Tartuffe with theatrical kitsch, motivated, it seems, by concern with maintaining the ill-conceived authenticity...
Roberta Maxwell's Mary is an acutely devastating portrait of a prima donna. She is vain, she is cruel, she throws temper tantrums, she is self-pitying, she is totally selfabsorbed. Unthroned, she is crowned in the dazzling radiance of her pride. Maxwell is in the top rank of U.S. actresses, and she proves it again in this kaleidoscopic performance...