Word: veneered
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Washington figures can be divided into those who have and those who have not developed the impervious veneer required by television -- that ability to duck an awkward question by talking about something else, the talent to pat-a- cake thoughts into little mouthfuls suitable for stopwatch programming. Of all the Senators and Congressmen on exhibit in recent televised hearings, Teddy Kennedy has the most undentable carapace. Many who watched the Bork hearings concluded that Kennedy and Utah's sycophantic Orrin Hatch vied in giving the worst performances. Yet Kennedy dominated the evening news coverage by crafting his wild charges into...
Most of the arm wrestlers are mild-mannered men like Joe who are not much used to the spotlight. They are the kind of people who may have frustrations but have learned how to bury those frustrations beneath a veneer of placidity. Still, those frustrations are there, simmering, and it is arm wrestling that gives them their release. Which is why Emcee Jones is nervous. He doesn't like to see arm wrestlers get tense. He speaks into the microphone. He tells the competitors that there will be an hour break so they can go outside to watch the "Teenie...
...utterance would permeate crafts other than architecture; it was the general style of the early Republic. Cabinetmakers no less than builders now preferred explicit, abstract shapes: circle, ellipse, square. Deep carving and swag work became flattened and were replaced by abstractions of depth, mimicking light and shade in veneer. Back to basics: antiquity is destiny...
...lieu of suspense there is plenty of attention to the veneer of the gilded age: high society in New York, Newport and Washington, with occasional forays into England and France. Vidal handles the gatherings of the very bright and very rich with meticulous attention to the furnishings and small outbursts of naughty wit. Mrs. John Jacob Astor appears, commenting on the trials of idle affluence: "Now I play bridge. It is exactly like being alive." Vidal also throws in teasers to keep knowledgeable readers on their toes. Roosevelt's outspoken daughter Alice is quoted on her desire to leave Washington...
...Grew is worth some effort, even from initiates. Beneath its self-congratulatory veneer, the story generates considerable poignancy and appeal. There is the little girl who takes a train trip from Seattle with her beloved parents to visit relatives in Minneapolis. Then her mother and father die, victims of the flu epidemic of 1918, leaving the heroine and three younger brothers orphaned into the harsh care of an aunt and uncle: "If I was beaten with a razor-strop for having won a prize in a city-wide essay contest, I had no need to ask myself...