Word: trait
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...abysmal. Early in my academic career, I had concluded that I had too much of a tendency towards lassitude to gain admission to an elite college by garnering an impressive joker in the housing office had read my thorough, if slightly arrogant, application and gleefully selected someone with every trait I detested. In our brief, mutually wary encounter, I discovered that she was a chemistry fanatic who went to bed at 10 p.m. and got up at 6 a.m. (I never go to bed before 3 a.m. and I never get up before 10 a.m.), loved Celtic harp music...
...isolated phenomenon unlikely to spread to other products. Says Sociologist Amitai Etzioni: "People have a very emotional stake in their cars. It's not rational and subject to the usual calculations." But others view it more seriously. Says Harvard Historian Frank Freidel: "Hoarding is an absolutely typical American trait...
...American characteristics, none perhaps has been more enduring than the national preoccupation with newness. This trait nourishes invention, but faddishness as well. Its least attractive symptom may be Americans' rejection of almost anything old that is not a marketable antique. In no aspect of the nation's life has this been more evident than in the reckless, relentless assault on old buildings and neighborhoods. The "pull-down-and-build-over spirit," as Walt Whitman dubbed it, has been incalculably costly in terms of aesthetics, energy and the sense of continuity that binds communities and generations together...
...blame for the failure of this Romeo and Juliet must lie at the feet of Hughes and Shannon Gaughan as Juliet. Neither goes beyond the broad label of 'youth' to find some more specific trait in their characters to highlight; neither is terribly graceful on stage; and both annoyingly exploit some vocal and some non-verbal mannerisms...
...same problems with characterization punctuate Blumenfeld's performance as the magician. His Jewish-German accent, the only distinguishing trait of his character, quickly becomes cumbersome. Although his part is well-written, Blumenfeld's caricatured accent limits his portrayal, reducing the magician to a stereotype...