Word: wits
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...HOBNOBBING WITH THE SNOBS: Kirkus is amused by "Snobbery: The American Version" by Joseph Epstein (Houghton Mifflin; July 9). "Clever, prolific Epstein turns his wit to the pernicious, universal failing previously addressed by such worthies as Edith Wharton, Tom Wolfe, Russell Lynes, and even Father Mencken, among countless others. Dissecting snobbery in all its current manifestations, Epstein (English/Northwestern) examines the ways in which people who pursue lives of invidious comparison may judge you (and surely find you wanting) in matters of employment, education, income, affiliations, intellectual interests, spouse(s), ethnicity, favored comestibles, politics, celebrity, dogs and not least progeny...
Reta narrates her predicament in the first person, circling it doggedly, chattily, sometimes with a deliciously malicious wit, taking us inside her domestic routines, her comfortable, functional marriage, her kaffeeklatsch, her struggles with her own new book. (Along with everything else, Unless is rich with practical advice for the would-be novelist.) Shields swings easily from comedy to tragedy and back again--she says she doesn't really believe in the distinction anyway--pausing in between for a disquisition on the biology of the trilobite (a prehistoric creepy-crawly), an expert demolition of literary journalists (no offense taken...
...didn’t have to be a scientist to appreciate his lectures and writings. Gould’s wit, humor and clarity brought his topics to life for anyone,” Brogan said. “He was a man with an inordinate amount of passion, who, especially during this difficult semester for him, exemplified the true spirit of a teacher...
Colleagues reached yesterday said they were pleased with Kirby’s selection, citing his extensive administrative experience, his commitment to undergraduate education and his keen wit...
...wit is just marvelous,” Fash said. “I’ve been in a number of different meetings...in which people will start to get worked up about something. And when people start to get a little edgy, he can sense that right away, and somehow in a nanosecond he comes up with the most surprising joke that completely deflates all the tension in the room...