Word: vulgarize
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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RUDDIGORE, or The Witch's Curse seemed cursed when it premiered in 1887. A vital piece of stage equipment malfunctioned; genteel members of the audience found the title vulgar, objecting to the offensive adjective "bloody;" lower class viewers demanded the revival of The Mikado, which had closed three days earlier. Despite extensive revisions, Ruddigore acquired a reputation for failure, artistically and financially. It was known as "the unlucky opera"--but Harvard is lucky to have it, thanks to a particularly fine Gilbert and Sullivan Players production...
Although a number of the 86 finalists were women, none won awards. Asimov felt confirmed in his thesis concerning women and limericks. "Women tend to be dirtier but less clever than men," he says. "I don't know why, but they can be surprisingly vulgar...
...complete story must be told in 34 to 49 syllables. Asimov likes them to be not only clever but also a bit vulgar. "Clean limericks lack flavor-like vanilla ice cream or pound cake," he claims. "They are perfectly edible but, to my taste, are tame, flat and unsatisfying." Nonetheless, Asimov awarded first prize to this limerick by George Vaill, retired secretary of Yale University...
...hasn't learned from his mistakes. I would have expected Emmerich, along with others who spout phrases coined by Science for the People (e.g., "vulgar Darwinism"), to be disturbed by DeVore's lecture, for it incidentally contradicted many of the things he claimed in his review of Dawkins's book on sociobiology last year (11 April 1977). That review led to a cascade of criticism, most of which asserted that he didn't know what he was talking about (26 April). Emmerich seems determined to prove his critics correct, and to force sociobiology into the "deeply conservative politics" mold whether...
...earlier works Winner sometimes demonstrated a certain vulgar energy, but even that has congealed as he respectfully confronts this "classic," and he seems to have communicated only that to his actors. As Marlowe, Robert Mitchum seems merely weary. Sarah Miles and Candy Clark, as the rich, spoiled and sexy sisters who inspire so much greed in others, as well as James Stewart, Oliver Reed, Richard Boone, John Mills, Joan Collins and Edward Fox, as assorted villains, victims and cops, all seem to be doing turns in a variety show rather than acting in an intelligently integrated drama. The result...