facile, recrimination, immense, philistine, reverential, self-reverential自戀. groundwork, seven-lengths.“Those people are not so self-reverential and they are in a different political environment.”

Ms. Hill suggested this type of branding was part of the “populist, strong man” approach to everything. “Trump does exactly the same,” she said, while noting that it would be hard to imagine the leaders of Canada, Germany or Britain appearing on T-shirts or other such merchandise. “Those people are not so self-reverential and they are in a different political environment.”

希爾女士認為，這種品牌塑造方式是「民粹主義、強人政治」方針的一部分。 「川普的做法也完全一樣，」她說道，同時指出，很難想像加拿大、德國或英國的領導人會出現在T卹或其他類似的商品上。 “這些人沒那麼自戀，而且他們所處的政治環境也不同。”




"A cycle of recriminations between LG and rival Samsung over washing-machine door hinges has spun out of control."


Lives have been ruined by marijuana as well as by its prohibition. It may be facile to lament the legalisation of the drug while ignoring the damage wrought by prohibition, but it is equally silly to assume that there will be no losers from the unprecedented marijuana legalisation experiments in Colorado and Washington http://econ.st/19HuPBM

A destructive streak

The tornado that hit the Oklahoma City area yesterday was immense 111

On the other hand, I know no prejudice so widely shared, no stereotype so facilely applied, as the notion that ''bourgeois'' means materialistic, philistine, narrow-minded, tasteless and prudish. Denigration of the class that emerged triumphant from the French Revolution and reigned supreme as ''Victorians'' has been with us since the early 19th century, epitomized in the caricatures of Daumier. Few contradictions reach so deep in our cultural sensibility as this triumphant ignominy.








Attempts at reconciliation lead only to more recriminations


This book lie in skill with which the arteries which connect widely separated elements of the plot are concealed.
The author never resorts to the facile introduction of narrative development for which the groundwork has not been laid .

此部書總妙在千里伏脈 不肯作易安之筆 沒(竹尹)之物也 是故妙絕群書



In both cases, Wittgenstein is depicted as a gurulike source of gnomic utterances. Jarman’s attitude toward this caricature is solemnly reverential, whereas Waugh’s is mocking and somewhat philistine.




But could you say something about the dangers of making comparisons and contrasts? Yes, there are lots of difficulties, an immense number of difficulties, starting from the fact that one never ..."




The distinction is too facile...


On the other hand, I know no prejudice so widely shared, no stereotype so facilely applied, as the notion that ''bourgeois'' means materialistic, philistine, narrow-minded, tasteless and prudish.

But let us not withhold from Peter Gay the credit he deserves for this immense, imaginatively conducted undertaking. No, he will not change the course of contemporary history, as Solzhenitsyn was able to do with his three volumes of ''The Gulag Archipelago.'' But Gay obliges us to reconsider our facile prejudice and to recognize the resourcefulness and high spirits of the class we love to mock.

groundwork

work done in preparation for something that will happen later: The planning committee will lay the groundwork for the conference.

facile

adjective
describes a remark or theory which is too simple and has not been thought about enough:
a facile explanation
We must avoid facile recriminations about who was to blame.



━━ a. 容易な; すらすら動く; （文体・ことばが）流ちょうな; 表面的な; 人あたりのよい.
adjective

• 1ignoring the true complexities of an issue; superficial:facile generalizations
• (of a person) having a superficial or simplistic knowledge or approach:a man of facile and shallow intellect

• 2(of success, especially in sport) easily achieved:a facile seven-lengths victory

Derivatives

facilely

adverb

facileness

noun

Origin:

late 15th century (in the sense 'easily accomplished'): from French, or from Latin facilis 'easy', from facere 'do, make'

length
[count noun] the length of a horse, boat, etc., as a measure of the lead in a race:the mare won the race by seven lengths

immense 
adjective
extremely large in size or degree:
immense wealth/value
They spent an immense amount of time getting the engine into perfect condition.

the cost of restoration has been immense  
a factor of immense importance

immensely Show phonetics
adverb
extremely:
He was immensely popular in his day.
She's an immensely talented young athlete.

immensity
noun [U] FORMAL
extremely great size:
The immensity of the task is daunting.

immensities 
plural noun LITERARY
the immensities (= immensity) of space

Definition of recrimination in English:

NOUN

(usually recriminations)

An accusation in response to one from someone else:there are no tears, no recriminations[MASS NOUN]: there was a period of bitterrecrimination

recrimination[re・crim・i・na・tion]
発音記号[rikrìmənéiʃən]
[名][U][C]非難し返すこと, （…への）逆襲((against ...))；《法律》反訴.

philistine
noun [C]
1 DISAPPROVING a person who refuses to see the beauty or the value of art, literature, music or culture in any form:
I wouldn't have expected them to enjoy a film of that quality anyway - they're just a bunch of philistines!

2 Philistine one of a race of people who lived in the coastal area of the SE Mediterranean in ancient times and were often at war with the Israelites

revere
verb [T] FORMAL
to greatly respect and admire someone or something:
Nelson Mandela is revered for his brave fight against apartheid.

reverence
noun [U] FORMAL
She has/shows/feels great reverence for her professors.
 《尊崇──一種被遺忘的美德》 (Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue) 
In New York, Reverence for Myanmar’s Opposition Leader


reverent
adjective FORMAL
A reverent silence fell over the crowd.
NOTE: The opposite is irreverent.

reverently
adverb FORMAL
He laid the wreath reverently in front of the memorial.

reverential 
adjective FORMAL
He opened the ancient book with reverential care.

visibility. reduce visibility to near zero, a gaggle of giggling angels. PERP WALK

The squalls will most likely last until Saturday morning, particularly near Lake Huron. Strong winds and blowing snow could reduce visibility to near zero, Environment Canada, the forecast agency, said.

BEIJING — On Friday morning, Hillary Rodham Clinton was the picture of a stern superpower diplomat, warning North Korea not to test a long-range ballistic missile. A few hours later, she was asked by a giggly Korean student how she knew she had fallen in love with her husband.



A Spin on Christmas Traditions
Mary and Joseph were heading for the stage, along with a beatific baby Jesus. Crowding in were shepherds, their flocks, wise men, a gaggle of giggling angels -- and a traffic report.
(By Jacqueline L. Salmon, The Washington Post)

罪犯遊行

Cambridge Dictionary

https://dictionary.cambridge.org › dictionary › perp-walk

Sep 24, 2025 — an occasion when police officers take a person who has been arrested for a crime through a public area so he or she can be seen and photographed by the media.

PERP WALK Definition & Meaning

Merriam-Webster

https://www.merriam-webster.com › dictionary › perp ...

Aug 26, 2025 — The meaning of PERP WALK is the public escorting of an arrested individual (as from a courthouse to a police car) by law enforcement ...

gaggle

n.

1. A flock of geese. See synonyms at flock¹.
2. A cluster or group: “A gaggle of photographers huddled on the sidewalk beside a swelling crowd of onlookers” (Gioia Diliberto).

[Middle English gagel, from gagelen, to cackle, probably of imitative origin.]

giggle Show phonetics
verb [I]
to laugh repeatedly in a quiet but uncontrolled and childish way, often at something silly or rude or when you are nervous:
Stop that giggling at the back!

giggle Show phonetics
noun
1 [C] a nervous or silly laugh:
There were a few nervous giggles from people in the audience.
I caught Roz having a giggle over some of Janet's awful poetry.

2 [S] UK INFORMAL something which is amusing, often when it involves laughing at someone else:
Just for a giggle, we hid his trousers while he was in the water.

the giggles plural noun INFORMAL
when you can't stop giggling:
I often used to get/have the giggles in lectures when I was at college.

giggler Show phonetics
noun [C]
a person who often giggles

giggly Show phonetics
adjective MAINLY DISAPPROVING
giggling a lot:
There were a load of giggly school-kids at the back of the bus.

gig・gle

━━ vi. くすくす笑う ((at)).
━━ vt. けらけら笑って…を表す.
━━ n. くすくす笑い; 〔英話〕 （単数形で） 面白さ.
giggle-smoke　〔米俗〕 マリファナ.
gig・gly　━━ a. （やたらに）くっくっと笑う.

autopen (自動筆/自動打字機 簡史與歷任美國總統使用) 到名作家 Margaret Atwood"發明的 LongPen

 

筆pen 的歷史太悠久，故事太多，只能談點簡史。

autopen (自動筆/自動打字機 簡史與歷任美國總統使用) 到名作家 Margaret Atwood"發明的 LongPen

Mr. Trump has hung a photo of an autopen in a space where Mr. Biden’s portrait would otherwise be, and disparages his predecessor’s physicality often.

Image

Mr. Trump hung a photo of an autopen in place of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on the “Presidential Walk of Fame” he had installed on the Colonnade.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

川普先生在原本應該掛拜登先生畫像的位置上，掛了一張自動打字機的照片，並且經常貶低他前任的體格。

圖片：川普先生在柱廊上設立的「總統名人堂」上，用一張自動打字機的照片取代了小約瑟夫·R·拜登總統的畫像。圖片來源：海雲江／紐約時報

wikipedia

History

The Autopen Model 50 from the International Autopen Company

The first signature duplicating machines were developed by British American inventor John Isaac Hawkins, who received a United States patent for his device in 1803, called a polygraph (an abstracted version of the pantograph) in which the user may write with one pen and have their writing simultaneously reproduced by an attached second pen. Thomas Jefferson used the device extensively during his presidency.^[1] This device bears little resemblance to today's autopens in design or operation.^[5]

The autopen called the Robot Pen was developed in the 1930s, and became commercially available in 1937 to record a signer's signature, used as a storage unit device, similar in principle to how vinyl records store information. A small segment of the record could be removed and stored elsewhere to prevent misuse. The machine would then be able to mass-produce a template signature when needed.^[6]

While the Robot Pen was commercially available, the first commercially successful autopen was developed by Robert M. De Shazo Jr., in 1942.^[7] De Shazo developed the technology that became the modern autopen in reference to a Request For Quote (RFQ) from the Navy, and in 1942, received an order for the machine from the United States Secretary of the Navy.^[2] This was the beginning of a significant market in government for the autopen, as the machines soon ended up in the offices of members of Congress, the Senate and the Executive branches. At one point, De Shazo estimated there were more than 500 autopens in use in Washington, D.C.^[8]

Use

Individuals who use autopens often do not disclose this publicly. Signatures generated by machines are valued less than those created manually, and perceived by their recipients as somewhat inauthentic.^[9] In 2004, Donald Rumsfeld, then the U.S. Secretary of Defense, incurred criticism after it was discovered that his office used an autopen to sign letters of condolence to families of American soldiers who were killed in war.^[10]

Outside of politics, it was reported in November 2022 that some copies of The Philosophy of Modern Song, a book by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan that had been published earlier that month, had been signed with an autopen, resulting in criticism. Autographed editions had been marketed as "hand-signed" and priced at US$600 each. Both Dylan and the book's publisher, Simon & Schuster, issued apologies; refunds were also offered to customers who had bought autopen-signed editions.^[11] In addition, Dylan also said that some prints of his artwork sold after 2019 had been signed with an autopen, which he further apologized for and attributed his use of the machine to vertigo and the COVID-19 pandemic, the latter of which prevented him from meeting with staff to facilitate signing the works in question.^[12]

U.S. presidents

Portrait of U.S. President Richard Nixon with autopen signature

A precursor to the autopen was an instrument called the polygraph (which is not related to the modern device of the same name). While a person using the polygraph wrote an original document on one side of the machine, the device would mechanically facsimile a copy on the opposite side. When President Thomas Jefferson discovered the device, he purchased two: one for the White House, and one for his home at Monticello. Although the device could only make copies at the same time that a user was creating an original, a fully automated version was invented in the 1930s. According to National Journal, some sources say that Harry S. Truman was the first U.S. president to use an autopen, though he limited his use of it to signing checks and answering mail. The first president to sign legislation with it was Barack Obama.^[13] Others credit Gerald Ford as the first president to openly acknowledge his use of the autopen.^[14]

While visiting France, Barack Obama authorized the use of an autopen to create his signature, signing into law an extension of three provisions of the Patriot Act.^[15] On January 3, 2013, he signed the extension to the Bush tax cuts, using the autopen while vacationing in Hawaii.^[16] In order to sign it by the required deadline, his other alternative would have been to have had the bill flown to him overnight.^[17] Republican leaders questioned whether this use of the autopen met the constitutional requirement for signing a bill into law,^[18] but the validity of presidential use of an autopen had not been actually tested in court.^[19] In 2005, George W. Bush asked for and received a favorable opinion from the Department of Justice regarding the constitutionality of using the autopen, but did not use it.^[20][21][22]

In May 2024, Joe Biden directed an autopen be used to sign legislation providing a one-week funding extension for the Federal Aviation Administration. Biden was traveling in San Francisco at the time, and wished to avoid any lapse in FAA operations, while a five-year funding bill was being voted on by Congress.^[23]

In March 2025, President Trump, while admitting that he sometimes uses an autopen,^[24] said that pardons for members of the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack issued during Biden's presidency are void due to them allegedly being signed by autopen. However, earlier in 2024, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that pardons do not have to be made in writing in Rosemond v. Hudgins.^[25][26] The following May, the House Oversight Committee, led by Republican Representative James Comer, announced an investigation into Biden's health and mental fitness during his presidency, focusing specifically on Biden's use of an autopen.^[27][28] In September 2025, Trump unveiled a sequence of portraits of serving and past presidents of the United States, in which Biden's portrait was replaced by a photograph of an autopen signing his name^[29]. In October 2025, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee claimed that Biden's autopen pardons were invalid because of autopen use, and called for the Department of Justice to open a new investigation into the Biden administration.^[30]

Similar devices

Further developing the class of devices known as autopens, Canadian author Margaret Atwood invented a device called the LongPen, which allows audio and video conversation between the fan and author while a book is being signed remotely.^{[citation needed]}

歷史

國際自動筆公司（International Autopen Company）的50型自筆

第一台簽名複製機由英裔美國發明家約翰·艾薩克·霍金斯（John Isaac Hawkins）發明，他於1803年獲得了美國專利。他的裝置稱為多形筆（polygraph，一種簡化的縮放器），使用者可以用一支筆書寫，同時另一支筆會同步複製其筆跡。托馬斯·傑斐遜總統在任期內廣泛使用過該裝置。 [1] 該裝置在設計和操作上與今天的自動筆幾乎沒有相似之處。 [5]

名為「機器人筆」（Robot Pen）的自動筆於1930年代開發，並於1937年投入商業應用。它用於記錄簽名者的簽名，並用作儲存單元，其原理類似於黑膠唱片儲存資訊的方式。為了防止濫用，可以移除唱片的一小部分並儲存在其他地方。需要時，機器可以批量產生模板簽名。 [6]

雖然機器人筆已上市銷售，但第一台真正商業化成功的自動簽名筆是由小羅伯特·M·德·沙佐 (Robert M. De Shazo Jr.) 於 1942 年開發的。 [7] 德·沙佐開發現代自動簽名筆的技術源自於海軍的一份詢價函 (RFQ)，並於 1942 年收到了美國海軍部長的訂單。 [2] 這標誌著自動簽名筆在政府領域的重要市場開端，這些機器很快就出現在國會、參議院和行政部門議員的辦公室中。德·沙佐估計，當時華盛頓特區使用的自動簽名筆超過 500 台。 [8]

使用情況

使用自動簽名筆的人通常不會公開承認這一點。機器生成的簽名不如手動簽名有價值，而且會被接收者認為不夠真實。 [9] 2004年，時任美國國防部長唐納德·拉姆斯菲爾德因被發現其辦公室使用自動簽名筆簽署致陣亡美軍士兵家屬的慰問信而受到批評。 [10]

在政治領域之外，2​​022年11月，有報道稱，歌手兼詞曲作家鮑勃迪倫的著作《現代歌曲哲學》的部分版本使用了自動簽名筆，引發爭議。該書於當月早些時候出版。這些簽名版被宣傳為“手寫簽名”，每本售價600美元。迪倫和該書出版商西蒙與舒斯特出版社都發表了道歉聲明；並向購買了自動簽名版的讀者提供了退款。 [11]此外，迪倫還表示，他2019年後售出的一些藝術作品的印刷品是用自動簽名筆簽名的，他對此表示歉意，並將使用機器的原因歸咎於眩暈症和新冠疫情，後者導致他無法與工作人員見面，從而無法為相關作品簽名。 [12]

美國總統

美國總統理查德·尼克森的肖像，帶有自動簽名筆簽名

自動簽名筆的前身是一種名為測謊儀的儀器（與現代同名設備無關）。使用測謊儀的人在機器的一側書寫原始文件，機器會在另一側自動複製一份副本。托馬斯·傑斐遜總統發現這種儀器後，購買了兩台：一台放在白宮，一台放在他在蒙蒂塞洛的住所。雖然這種儀器只能在使用者書寫原件的同時進行複製，但全自動版本在20世紀30年代被發明出來。根據《國家雜誌》報道，一些資料顯示，哈里·S·杜魯門是第一位使用自動簽名筆的美國總統，但他僅限於用它簽署支票和回复郵件。第一位使用自動簽名筆簽署法案的總統是巴拉克·歐巴馬。 [13] 另一些人則認為傑拉爾德·福特是第一位公開承認使用自動簽名筆的總統。 [14]

巴拉克·歐巴馬在訪問法國期間，授權使用自動簽名筆產生簽名，並簽署了《愛國者法案》三項條款的延期法案。 [15] 2013年1月3日，他在夏威夷度假期間使用自動簽名筆簽署了布希減稅法案的延期法案。 [16] 為了在規定的截止日期前簽署該法案，他還可以採取另一種方式，即讓專人連夜將法案空運給他。 [17] 共和黨領袖質疑使用自動簽名筆是否符合簽署法案的憲法要求，[18] 但總統使用自動簽名筆的合法性尚未經過法庭檢驗。 [19] 2005年，喬治·W·布希曾向司法部諮詢並獲得了關於使用自動簽字筆合憲性的有利意見，但他並未使用該簽字筆。 [20][21][22]

2024年5月，喬·拜登指示使用自動簽字筆簽署一項法案，該法案為聯邦航空管理局（FAA）提供一周的資金延期。當時拜登正在舊金山訪問，他希望避免FAA的營運出現任何中斷，因為一項為期五年的撥款法案正在接受投票表決。

------

The LongPen is a remote type of autopen. This signing device was invented by writer Margaret Atwood in 2004 and debuted in 2006.^[1] It allows a person to write remotely in ink anywhere connected to the Internet, via a touchscreen device operating a robotic hand.^[2] It can also support an audio and video conversation between the endpoints, such as a fan and author, while a book is being signed.

The system was used by Conrad Black, who was under arrest, to "attend" a book signing event without leaving his home.^[2]

See also

• List of Canadian inventions and discoveries
• Interactive whiteboard
• Polygraph (duplicating device)
• Autopen