Word: verbalism
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Official Phrases. Although Wing Commander seemed to understand the ringmaster's verbal commands (for a rack, a walk, a canter), he was getting instructions through his rider's legs and the bits in his mouth. In the trot, Rider Teater deliberately let the field draw ahead of Wing and then clucked to him. The champ, all the prettier to watch for being alone, quickly caught up with the field and passed most of it. After going through all their paces, Wing Commander and two others were selected to remain in the center of the ring. The order...
...Bookishness. The world of modern education, as Smith found it, is one in which drill and discipline are taboo, and teachers have become abnormally afraid of boring pupils or straining their abilities. In worrying about such matters, they have long belittled what they call "verbal intelligence" and "bookishness," forgetting that "by far the greater part of man's wisdom is stored up in books...
...executive committee of the National Interfraternity Conference had omitted the touchy question from the agenda; it came up on the conference floor in Washington last week just the same. Agreed a majority of the representatives of U.S. Greek-letter societies, in a resolution swathed in verbal cotton wool: fraternities that have "selective membership provisions" (i.e., whose bylaws bar anybody on grounds of race or religion) ought to "eliminate such selectivity provisions." The vote: 36 for, 3 against, 19 abstaining...
...bail because you brought me out of jail," he boomed. "I am back just in time to get re-elected . . . and no S.O.B. Medina is going to stop me." Newly freed Comrades Robert Thompson and Henry Winston, who came along for the ride, tossed a little more verbal kerosene on the fire; so did Party-Line Chanter Paul Robeson...
...questions in a given field. Quizmaster Groucho perches on a stool by the microphone, and chats with them between questions. He encourages them to tell their life stories, and as they talk, he festoons the impromptu dialogue with strings of rapid-fire gags, or simply guides his victims into verbal traps and lets them writhe. "Women are the best ones on this program," says Marx, carefully flicking cigar ashes on his grey slacks. "They talk a lot. And the older women talk more than the younger ones. They make great contestants, but I'd hate to be married...