Word: trappings
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...achieve authenticity, some costume dramas force characters to pronounce every word without benefit of contractions-the isn'ts, don'ts and can'ts that make speech bearable. Wisely opting for today's idiom, Scriptwriter Jack Pulman occasionally falls into the opposite trap, with lines like "The Parthians are at it again, always stirring up trouble!" And Pulman doubtless was merely having fun when he put in Livia's mouth Mae West's famous line...
Like a heretic defending himself before the Inquisition, Schorr was summoned to testify before a hostile Congressional investigatory committee, armed with questions tailored to trap him into revealing his source. Schorr withstood the pressures of the committee inquiry, braving threats of prosecution for contempt. He told the committee...
Look at it this way: If you were God and chose to manifest yourself on earth, wouldn't you give serious consideration to appearing as George Burns? The man has always had a quietly authoritative air about him-a realist who has somehow avoided the trap of cynicism. Better still, he is one of the rare comedians who have never begged an audience for sympathy (a business as fatal to comic belief as it is to divine belief). Burns maintains a reserve, a dignity that must surely be appreciated in heaven, if only because of its increasing rarity here...
...opinion polls diagnosed the concept of alienation, some people were already cocktail-party-familiar with a selfish version of it, trotting out their justification for narcissism and political apathy with the self-righteousness of that fox in Aesop's fable who gets his tail sliced off in a trap and spends ages trying to convince his fellows that, really, it is exceedingly convenient to be rid of such an appendage...
...face the University itself, perhaps the hardest task of all. Many point to the intellectual questioning that goes on at Harvard as something people at other schools might not have to face. Crist says he personally has found it a problem at Harvard to avoid the kind of competitive trap students get into, a situation not reconcilable with a lifestyle whose highest priority is prayer and Bible study. Pierce mentions the "flagrant immorality" at Harvard that he often finds hard to take. All agree, however, that God wants Christians to live in the world, and that the Christians...