Word: dryness
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...Murphy, however, Esalen's greatest promise is probably that of an outlaw university, a place that can pursue "rigor in the service of adventure," rescuing learning from both the dryness of the academy and the wishy-washiness of many alternatives. Certainly, aphorisms fly every evening in the central redwood lodge, where seminarians cluster in excited groups over cups of coffee and thrash out Rilke and reincarnation deep into the night. "You do not visit India; you visit yourself," a New York investment analyst tells an Italian woman from Houston and her 18-year-old son. "Whether man finds things...
...would expect in this sort of comedy. One can often easily guess the next measure of desperation to which Cleese will be driven, whether it be stealing transport or lying to the authorities. So, while the film has plenty of paralysing funniness, it also has long stretches of British dryness and worn-out conventions...
...hardly realize you've been stung. The author reports of an unhurried race horse, for instance, that "Sterling Drive broke from the rail, with infinite care, and headed directly for the parking lot, going so wide on the first turn that several fans groaned." The deftness and dryness here, an infinitely careful nag, indeed, is worthy of Red Smith...
...murder. A Dershowitz arguing constitutional law before the Supreme Court is naturally more interesting than this rookie public defender arguing in Juvenile Court over a street fight. Street fights can be powerfully addressed but Kunen fails to make those he dealt with illuminating and infects them with his standard dryness...
WHAT MAKES such dryness a sign of hope is not just the implication that promoting a woman to a new position is commonplace--though in the city of Elizabeth II and Margaret Thatcher, the matter-seems far less debatable than elsewhere. Rather, it neatly avoids the undertones that unavoidably creep into more extensive coverage. The wild enthusiasm over Sally Ride's flight wasn't sexist; but the most scrupulous editor couldn't avoid addressing the question of whether it was more difficult, somehow, for a woman to orbit the Earth; whether the milestone was womanhood's for evolving to that...