Word: touche
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Most of the space gear stood up well, and much of it did better than anticipated, though malfunctions gave the flight a touch-and-go aura all the way. Two rocket thrusters jammed; the fuel-cell system was a constant problem. But the spacemen were pleasantly surprised by the capabilities of other equipment. Gemini's ultra-high-frequency radio transmitter, for example, showed remarkable clarity. Said Chris Kraft: "We're up there to learn systems performance and how to handle problems-and we're getting a good workout...
...shock of his innovations bred rebellion and outrage. Nevertheless he got commissions. His 1952 Unité d'Habitation in Marseille lifted 337 apartments on stilts to give them a view of the Alps. On its surface of rough poured concrete, the marks of wooden forms remained like a touch of man's hand-a touch that so many modern glass-and-steel structures lack. At Chandigarh, the new governmental seat of the state of Punjab in India, Corbu set about making battlements on a plain. Rendering to God as well as man, he designed a chapel at Ronchamp...
There is more than a touch of irony in the present labor dispute. The shorter work weeks that have angered the union leaders were not intentionally scheduled by American Motors; they were caused by periodic shortages of auto bodies. The shortages developed when large numbers of bodies, rejected by inspectors for faulty workmanship, were sent back for repair instead of on to the assembly plant. The union steward whose firing precipitated the strike was discharged for refusing to let his men in the Kenosha body plant work overtime-work that would have provided more bodies, thus making unnecessary the short...
...Touch of Loren. The European airlines are almost unanimously opposed to in-flight entertainment, prefer to lure passengers by stressing service. Though their service is basically the same as that offered by U.S. airlines, each carrier still manages to provide some individual touches. First-class passengers on Lufthansa drink German draft beer, eat smoked-ham sandwiches on black pumpernickel. Alitalia bills itself as the "simpatico" airline: its stewardesses, though trained to wear makeup that looks made down, never quite conceal that tantalizing touch of Loren that they all seem to have. The newest wrinkle in service is the package tour...
There is something patronizing and Chaplinesque in this scene: a touch of the pathetic and the grotesque that ungratefully suggests an author condescending from an arrogant altitude upon the lives of the absurd little people he has consented to consider. But the grotesquerie, more often than not, is magically imaginative, and the little people are accorded minute examination and archetypal significance-if not full human being. Joe Buck is a Job in boob boots...