Word: witlessness
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...shouted threats from the defendants seemed to confirm the fears of the jurors. "Lock your doors!" the Manson women cried. "Protect your kids!" Said Tubick after the verdict: "I'm scared witless." In Evelyn Hines' home, the police department's emergency number is clearly displayed these days by both of the Hineses' telephones. An M-l carbine lies beneath Mr. Hines' side of the bed. Each night as she prepares the family dinner, Mrs. Mines hears the police helicopter whirring overhead; helicopters patrol from time to time near each juror's home. When...
...they been treated from a detached critical point of view, both these scenes would have been embarrassing exercises in heavy-handed social commentary. But seen through Antonio's eyes, even the most obvious political points are somehow ingenuous and therefore palatable. His witless incomprehension makes him a hero by default. All the characters are mere sticks, but Antonio is an appealing stick. In a world of universally despicable characters passivity becomes a positive virtue...
...tale of urban warfare ensues. Doors are padlocked, windows are shuttered, rifles are broken out. A paranoid detective (Alan Arkin) tries to solve Patsy's murder -and 344 other unsolved killings -amid drumfire volleys of sniper fire. Alfred lapses into catatonia, reviving just in time to command a witless, meaningless shooting spree...
...WITLESS pedantry it is difficult to match the Faculty's empty condemnation of the war last Tuesday. Their vote ignored the real strike concerns raised by undergraduates, graduate students, and teaching fellows. Even President Pusey has been more sympathetic- to the shock of many the Administration has come out further to the left than the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. One must credit the usually sluggish Administration for whatever progressive response being made so far. They, at least realize the stakes...
...from Olympus to reassure himself of his immortality, he ventures from his studio on the Rue Boissonnade to loaf among the plebs until inspiration returns. But no sooner is he in "the circle of the frivolous damned" than the world's petty annoyances close in. Brother Georges, a witless executive living far beyond his means and on the verge of ruin, asks for and gets the balance in Pluche's bank account. Brother-in-Law Mesnard, an immensely successful painter who sold his talent out to fashionable tastes, has taken up with a young bird and threatens...