"From infancy on, we are all spies; the shame is not this but that the secrets to be discovered are so paltry and few."
--from "Bech, A Book" (1970) by John Updike
Twenty-five years ago, in 1989 — when millions of Chinese marched for more freedom and less corruption in demonstrations that ended with a crackdown around Tiananmen Square — China’s per-capita gross domestic product, a measure of its economic output, was a paltry $403 a year.
Damascus on Edge as War Seeps into Syrian Capital
By an employee of THE NEW YORK TIMES in DAMASCUS SYRIA and ANNE BARNARD
For months, Damascus has hunched in a defensive crouch as fighting raged in suburbs, but a rebel advance has created a new level of alarm and disorder.
amorous rites - A Shakespearean term for lovemaking
One of his best-known accomplishments was to include vulgar slang for copulation and female genitalia. But he also frequently bragged of being far less opposed than previous editors to including foreign words. According to Dr. Ogilvie’s book, he once told Newsweek, “It seemed obvious to me that the vocabulary of all English-speaking countries abroad should receive proper attention.”
on edge
Tense, nervous, irritable, as in We were all on edge as we waited for the surgeon's report. This expression transfers the edge of a cutting instrument to one's feelings. [Late 1800s] Also see on the edge; set one's teeth on edge.
jol·li·ty (jŏl'ĭ-tē)
n., pl., -ties.
Convivial merriment or celebration.
pal·try
/ˈpôltrē/
Adjective
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Synonyms
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coitus=copulations
co·i·tus (kō'ĭ-təs, kō-ē'-)
n.
Sexual union between a male and a female involving insertion of the penis into the vagina.
[Latin, from past participle of coīre, to copulate : co-, co- + īre, to go, come.]
I have. Nicol Williamson is, of course, an admirable
actor, and some of the sequences are very good. The scene with
the water-ski girl, gulping and giggling, is exceptionally
successful. But I was appalled by the commonplace quality of
the sexual passages. I would like to say something about that.
Clichés and conventions breed remarkably fast. They occur
as readily in the primitive jollities of the jungle as in the
civilized obligatory scenes of our theater. In former times
Greek masks must have set many a Greek dentition on edge. In
recent films, including Laughter in the Dark, the porno
grapple has already become a cliché though the
device is but half-a-dozen years old. I would have been sorry
that Tony Richardson should have followed that trite trend, had
it not given me the opportunity to form and formulate the
following important notion: theatrical acting, in the course of
the last centuries, has led to incredible refinements of
stylized pantomine in the representation of, say, a person
eating, or getting deliciously drunk, or looking for his
spectacles, or making a proposal of marriage. Not so in regard
to the imitation of the sexual act which on the stage has
absolutely no tradition behind it. The Swedes and we have to
start from scratch and what I have witnessed up to now on the
screen-- the blotchy male shoulder, the false howls of bliss,
the four or five mingled feet-- all of it is primitive,
commonplace, conventional, and therefore disgusting. The lack
of art and style in these paltry copulations is particularly
brought into evidence by their clashing with the marvelously
high level of acting in virtually all other imitations of
natural gestures on our stage and screen. This is an attractive
topic to ponder further, and directors should take notice of
it.
Definition of copulation
noun
[mass noun]genitalia
- 音節
- gen • i • ta • lia
- 発音
- dʒènətéiliə
[名](複)《解剖学》（外部）生殖器, （外）性器.
gen・i・tal・ic〔d
èn
tǽlik〕
[形]èntǽlik〕amorous
Pronunciation: /ˈam(ə)rəs/
Definition of amorous
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