Word: wretched
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties of which it is useless to complain . . . without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favor." A patron, Johnson bitterly declared in the Dictionary, is "one who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery...
...diabolically clever villain, an "enemy of the people," insinuates himself into the party, dupes the honest comrades, rises higher and higher, and finally is given top responsibilities and honors. All the while he is conniving with other "enemies of the people," internal or external. But at last the crafty wretch is "unmasked," and the honest comrades, roused from their torpid illusions, take their vengeance...
...read agents, a New Yorker, presented a note to the teller at the 43rd St. Merchants' Trust Bank saying, "This is a stick-up. Pass over all your cash and no one will get hurt." The teller was indeed stuck-up--insufferably so. She hardly glanced at the poor wretch, but replied, "Well, you must have that O.K.ed by an officer." Then she left her cage, walked to a guard and gave the rascal in charge. After searching him, finding neither weapons nor money, the guards threw him out of the bank. "We thought he was a bum," they explained...
...Shakespear. Actually, no other plays are quite so unsuited to non-professional treatment, because the Bard's familiar plots cannot divert audience attention from the actors' shortcomings. Each viewer is sure that he can--or has--played the role to something near amateur perfection. And heaven help the wretch who falls below this often exaggerated standard...
...again, some war and reconstruction embittered young hotblood oversteps himself. In Horizons West, for instance, Robert Ryan runs verily amuck when a money-grubbing, lecherous, mortgage-foreclosing carpetbagger slaps his face. He shoots the wretch, takes over his profitable rackets, and with great native ability builds them to new oppressive high. Naturally, he gets his come-uppance, but not at Union hands. His wizened Pappy and loving step-brother help an irate citizen gun him down in the street. But note: he sent another Yankee to the Happy Bucket Shop before...