Word: witness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Director Yanne (who was promptly dubbed Chang Yanne by one Paris wit) wasted no time cashing in on the tempest in a China teacup. He coined a helpful publicity slogan: "The film that frightened 800 million Chinese." He also invented a few fake Chinese proverbs, attributing them, naturally, to Confucius. Sample axiom: "Marxist philosophy can very easily be reconciled with foie gras. "More seriously, he argued last week: "If the cinema is going to cause diplomatic crises, then it's time to worry about the mental health of the great powers...
...State Henry Kissinger, as well as several high officials who are not Jewish. He went on to name local people, besides Murphy, whom the "army" had considered kidnaping. The list included Atlanta's recently installed and amply girthed mayor, Maynard Jackson, and in a flash of mordant wit the kidnaper quipped: "We decided against the mayor because he wouldn't fit in the trunk...
...certain number of sissies are bound to go around condescending to Blazing Saddles as a comedy of less than perfect form. They will note that it lacks the careful construction and polished wit that are often cited by essentially humorless people, usually to justify the minor cultural sin of having a good time at a movie that is less than 35 years old and does not star either the Marx Brothers or W.C. Fields...
...defined flowers in terms of infinity: a rose is a rose is a rose. Her description of St. Ignatius' vision of the Holy Ghost was "Pigeons on the grass, alas!" Wit, whimsy, sly associations of sound were Gertrude Stem's forte; when she got heavy or theoretical, she was unreadable. It is a truism of the Lost Generation that she influenced Hemingway's style crucially. He took her schematic use of sound patterns and transmogrified it into the spare, stylized prose that became the most pervasive literary parlance of the century. For all her celebrity...
...stand-by two-liner, "Who was that lady I saw you with last night?" Well, today it is more likely to turn up translated into something like Comedian George Carlin's street-dude one-upper: "Hey, man, what'd ya do last night?" Answer: "I was out wit ya muther, man!" And the audience guffawing at it is most likely gathered not down at the old vaudeville house, but at home round the old stereo...