Word: button
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...placard on the counter of the Manhattan music store of Carl Fischer, Inc. was modest enough in size, but the slogan it bore was a call to arms. "COMBAT THE MENACE!" it read. "GET YOUR LUDWIG BUTTON.'' The menace: none other than Rock 'n' Roller Elvis Presley. The Ludwig: a composer with the last name of Beethoven. Last week Ludwig van Beethoven was the center of one of the fastest-growing fan clubs in the nation...
...opening night, the Irving Berlin tunes came across clear and forceful, and the lyrics produced their laughs on cue. (Some of the dialogue, considered too risque, was altered: e.g., Annie's line, "If you hadna' done it, I'd a shot yew right in the belly button," became "I would have shot over my shoulder and knocked the button off your vest.") Viennese brought up on the beefy Volksoper chorus were especially delighted by Prawy's slimmed-down chorus line. At the end, the audience cheered...
Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson was accosted at the White House (where Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield had just been sworn in again) by three news-service lensmen. who hung on his lapel a button inscribed "S.O.D." Its meaning: "Sons of Dunghill," commemorating the January occasion when "Engine" Charlie, fresh from another White House palaver over his remarks about the National Guard (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), declined to comment on the meeting, blurting: "This isn't my dunghill!" Quip-per Wilson finally explained last week exactly what he had meant, thus increased his renown for honesty, if not discretion. Said Charlie...
...machine invented and operated by a former network engineer. His clients (three shows a week) and the whole industry are so furtive about canned laughter that he will discuss it only anonymously. To operate his machine, he sits at a tape console with a panel of twelve buttons, plus controls for quality and volume. Each button fades in a different shade in the whole spectrum of laughter and applause, e.g., a male belly laugh, scattered titters, the out-of-control shrieks of women, the outburst bellowing up to thunder. The engineer plays his machine like an organ, rehearses right along...
...Nicosia last week Flying Officer Kenyon went before a court-martial. Kenyon insisted he had just pushed the wrong button by mistake. He was upset and nervous, the cockpit was dark, he felt hurried because the briefing had run behind schedule, the flap and undercarriage buttons were close together. Said Kenyon: "I have no political or religious views; I gave that reason merely because I was dreadfully worried over my tragic mistake. It was far better, I thought, to say I had intentionally caused the Canberra damage rather than to say I had made a mistake and was incompetent...