Word: upmanship
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...heroes often choose between emulation and rejection. In the category of the overreaching emulator, consider George S. Patton III. As an Army colonel in 1968, he sent out a Christmas card: a photograph of a pile of Vietnamese corpses, with the inscription "Peace on Earth." In the Oedipal upmanship of military dynasties, Patton's father, the ivory-pistoled mystic brute of World War II, was a tough act to follow...
...although on his own terms, Topher Dow plays him quite well). And I can't discern much directorial interpretation of the forces compelling Antony's fall, the ability of lust and indolence to dissolve a man's will--although the magnetic pull of the games of one-upmanship is clear enough. That doesn't mean that Sellars hasn't worked these things out in his own head--his synopsis the program is full of cryptic notes like "A Nixon cameo," and "Enobarbus is Shakespeare," and, frankly, I don't have the vaguest idea what some of them mean. Maybe nothing...
...secretary makes them. It is insufferable one-upmanship to have a secretary chirp, "Please hold for Mr...." Baldrige offers a fairly quaint line for use in getting rid of a pest on the phone: "My staff informs me an emergency call is waiting for me on the other line. Please forgive me, and put in writing the rest of your thoughts." She is less than enthusiastic about recorded music being piped in to entertain a caller who is put on hold...
...Edmond-Blanc, presented Ceauşescu with a golden plate. He declared that the Rumanian leader had beaten the previous world record by 100 points, according to a complex formula involving the bear's size and the quality of its fur. A bit of East Bloc one-upmanship added to Ceauşescu's triumph. The previous record holder was the president of neighboring Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito...
...totally defenseless, however. On the field event squad it boasts Hasan Kayali, the Turkish-born jumper who has gone undefeated in the high and triple jumps in the three meets Harvard has swept this season. As a competitor, Kayali is a master of the art of one-upmanship. During the Boston College meet, in the long jump, BC jumper Amjad Ghori leaped the prodigious distance of 22' 10". From the reaction of the BC fans it was obvious that Ghori had just jumped the longest distance of his life, apparently sewing up first place for the Eagles. His lead, however...