Word: alien
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Accustomed to magazines that only entertain (Life) or sloganeer (Time), Americans have a difficult time classifying the "N.R." Neither "liberal" nor "radical" will do. The appropriate adjective is "civilized," a word alien to this country, used on this side of the Atlantic only as a term of condescension or ridicule. The New Republic is civilized in the French sense of the term: "rendu correct ou elegant." And, because it is civilized, it can civilize those who read it, by stimulating interest in new problems and by fostering perspective in regard to old ones...
Another, a suave type, feeling grossly outclassed by Harvard sophistication, adopts an alien mid-western twang and cultivates a homespun humor and the slightly hayseed appearance of an endearing country lad. A third arrives sporting a youthful social idealism. Finding this stance unfashionable, he soon outdoes his classmates in pretending to the cynicism of a world-wise septagenarian. Sometimes one's entire undergraduate career may become an act. "The Snow-Man," of one sort or another, is a traditional Harvard phenomenon The ethos of this complex is ambition; its characteristic emotion is frustration...
...Crimson to win, Walt Hewlett must turn in his fourth straight first place and Dave Alien, Smith, and Chiappa--if he runs--must finish in the first eight to offset the Harvard injuries...
Black tirelessly translated 18th century admonitions into 20th century contexts. Faced with a law stripping an ex-Communist alien of social security benefits, Black called it a new version of the old bill of attainder, forbidden in Article 1. Black insisted that the framers did all necessary balancing when they wrote the Constitution. When the First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law," he argued, "no law means...
...year hitch makes good sense in the Peace Corps, which needs to train volunteers intensively for sensitive missions in alien cultures. But a long enlistment period is not as necessary for VISTA. The cultural conditions of American poverty are not so unfamiliar as those of Nigeria or Peru. Assuming that he were given less responsible jobs than regular volunteers, a part-time VISTA worker, contributing 10 or 15 hours a week to a local project, could be prepared to do constructive tasks in a matter of days...