Word: useless
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...these cases, all the blue-book phrases-and pen-point terms of the undergraduate are rendered useless; in fact, he might have slept through all his brain fresh. Neo-platonism, Transcendentalism, and all the other pat lecture-room labels go by the board--to drag them into a psychological test would only prove that he had not "the brains he was born with". Nor is the graduate better served. Experience, practice in practical affairs, greater maturity get him no more than a gentlemanly "satisfactory" when he competes with his children or grandchildren...
Yale's magnificent new gift, from an anonymous donor, of seven hundred and fifty acres of woodland on the outskirts of New Haven, stands out in refreshing contrast to the members of half-given or useless legacies which are the bane of education today, embarrassing the beneficiaries as much as they inflate the names of the benefactors. Although it has been said that over half the title of college president is the office of continually passing the hat; it is more and more becoming the fashion for a captain of industry to justify his gains by largesse thrown...
...fighting craft must be supported by what are known in naval parlance as auxiliary craft. These include scouts, transports, colliers, oil tankers, ammunition ships, aircraft carriers and various other craft with specialized equipment. A certain number of these vessels have been specially constructed for naval purposes and are useless for anything else. They belong to the regular navy just as much as do battleships and other armored fighting craft...
...destiny. But instead we have become the slaves of the machine; we run hither and thither in agony of futile haste; we compete where no end is served and no result achieved; we sweat over unloved tasks and neglect the true business of life; we erect and execute useless schemes, multiplying the worries of life, cluttering our days with rubbish, blasting Leisure and wasting our strength on this false and misbegotten ideal of "College Spirit." Columbia "Varsity...
...psychology of his soul. He made no apologies. He left much to guess at and work out. But if you have the courage and the perseverance to discard the ever obvious, you find and will continue to find yourself free from the character-racking conventionalities of our useless modern civilization. His greatest admirers were his worst defaulters. Tolstoi, Gorki, etc. filched his work and vulgarized it, as did our very original, potent-seeming Bernard Shaw. But who cares for the fabric of a well monogramed kerchief...