Word: genteel
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Trim waitresses gliding around in starched white pinafores, delicate aromas of freshly brewed Darjeeling and Lapsang Souchong, the genteel tinkle of stainless steel on proper china: Whatever happened to the great British tearoom? With the homogenization of the high street, you could be forgiven for thinking they'd all but disappeared. Look beyond the big-brand coffee chains, however, and you'll find them alive and kicking. Here are some of the best...
Picking her way through gyrating bodies to deliver a welcoming speech, Shadow Equalities Minister Theresa May looked as if she'd dressed for the sort of genteel event more commonly associated with the Conservatives: a church fete or a sedate evening of sherry and nibbles. It was May, in her former job as Conservative chairwoman, who coined the epithet "Nasty Party" in 2002 to warn her colleagues that their moralizing traditionalism was turning off the wider electorate. The rift between the Tories and gay-rights supporters was especially wide following the passage of legislation by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...
...genteel-looking Keller is expected to put up a fight, even though she has been silent thus far on the upcoming trial. In a written response to the charges, she derided the defense attorneys' claims that computer trouble delayed their paperwork: "It did not take a computer to prepare and timely file ... it could have been handwritten and the court would have accepted it as Judge Keller informed the Commission...
Slick and Mostly Polished Nationalists often speak of the importance of preserving their national culture. But the cultures they describe are often mythic. It is amid the rubble of discarded beer cans and the bleakness of northern English housing estates that never knew a genteel past that the BNP finds its most enthusiastic support. It is also in exactly such areas that disenchantment with mainstream politics - intensified in Britain by the recent scandal over MPs' expenses - is at its most profound...
...Given the risks of wild harvests, it's little wonder that the smart money has moved into the more genteel birdhouse business - although here, too, there are complications. Swiftlet condos have become local eyesores. Because nest theft is common, the untreated concrete structures often resemble secret weapons facilities, their roofs adorned with barbed wire and electric fences. Bird droppings are a potential health threat, too, while in some towns, the constant noise from Swiftlet Bazooka Tweeters and other callers has become "unbearable," admits...