Word: high-class
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Suspense novels are meant to transport a man from his drab daily anxieties into a euphoric state of really high-class terror. Most authors in the suspense business used to accomplish this by piling up murder and mayhem, sin and skulduggery with all the subtlety of a meat-ax killer. That style is still widely practiced, but in recent years the suspense formula has become as elastic as a private eye's suspenders. It has often been stretched to include such weighty matters as character, group psychology, politics and sometimes even good writing. Thus a new category was created...
Before he could play, he had the lights turned up so he could see the huge audience. "Isn't that great, George?" he bubbled to his brother. Then he began his musical efforts by raising his piano bench higher because "This is a pretty high-class number." Pretty high-class for Liberace were something called Cornish Rhapsody (originally a British film score), emasculated versions of popular Chopin pieces, and Debussy's Clair de Lune, accompanied by five Madison Square Garden spotlights making like the moon. Hardly anybody had time to decide whether he was playing all the notes...
...even a Japanese professor can live by applause alone. Mrs. Sato, her husband complains, "cannot afford a high-class beauty shop, and my son must quench his desire for a high-class camera. As for myself, I was once accosted by the madame of a certain bar. She said: '. . . Why do you not come to see me, my dear teacher?'" Professor Sato's answer remains his secret, but his conclusion is edifying. "Professors are not made of wood, but are human beings with blood in their veins. Naturally, they are inclined to put their heads into...
...Washington newsman, commenting on Childs's shift, "has made the job of the columnists impossible. He has to turn out something with meaning five days a week. He can't digest events. He's a victim of inconsistency. He can really become a kind of high-class gossip monger if he's not careful...
...debut as a fillin, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, three years ago. Since then she has answered several other fire calls, including two for Gilda in Rigoletto (for Hilde Gueden and Genevieve Warner), one for Adele in Fledermaus (for Virginia MacWatters). But Soprano Peters is more than a high-class fireman...