Word: devoid
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Puerto Rico came to the U.S. as a prize of the Spanish-American War, and no colonial concubine ever passed to a new master with so meager a trousseau; the island was virtually devoid of natural resources and could barely feed itself. Only after World War II did Puerto Rico move from wretched poverty to the highest living standard in Latin America. It also achieved considerable autonomy under a unique political status called commonwealth by mainlanders and Estado Libre Asociado (Free Associated State) by islanders...
...tell it, Gary Deeb's job is to sit in front of a television set for up to six hours a day and be insulted. "Counterfeit, stylized brutality that passes for entertainment," he says of the current TV season, adding that the networks' offerings seem to be "devoid of innovation, creativity or diversification," freighted with "drivel," "sanitized doggerel" and "phony, rotten garbage...
...people interviewed. Al Capp is depressing because he says things like, "But my God, even the nice girls were cretins, and the ones who weren't were cretins and nasty too." Florynce Kennedy, the black feminist lawyer, is depressing because her life seems to have been so devoid of affection--"To me sex is like an interruption of my life and I guess it always has been." And Art Buchwald is depressing even when he's funny: "I put women on a pedestal, but fundamentally I was very hostile to them. I was trying to get even with my mother...
...cast is fine. David Spielberg as Actor Parks poignantly tries to cling to a shard of dignity, and Allan Miller as Abe Burrows pulls more legs than the committee has. The real inquisitor is Bentley, who deals out a blame game that is dramatically deficient and devoid of charity...
...attract or repel. Mainly, he tries to soothe with an approach that is pearly smooth and a bit soporific. "He dreams dreams but doesn't chase rainbows," was an early campaign slogan. The result is a rather colorless campaign, though one that exudes competence. Bentsen seems all but devoid of regional or personal quirks. His urbane performance gives no clues that he is a Texan. Understated and restrained, he manages to conceal much of the inner man from public view. Says a longtime associate: "Bentsen is one of the hardest people in public life to get to know." Adds...