Word: machiavellian
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Former council president Beth A. Stewart '00 accused the EC of having a Machiavellian instinct--deciding on a desired outcome, then fitting an explanation...
Like that of most grownups, my memory of middle school is a scratchy mental filmstrip of tiny triumphs punctuated by gigantic humiliations--the vomiting-on-my-sneakers incident of 1972, for example. My school was one of those Machiavellian pyramids composed of jocks, cheerleaders, greasers, hoods, geeks--and an atomic-wedgie specialist nicknamed Buzz, who roamed the halls looking for victims. I was lucky, however. I had two older sisters--big, popular and vengeful teenage goddesses. Looking back, I'm sure they would have happily watched me dangle from a locker hook, but at the time I was able...
...best when Gross waxes poetic about his best when Gross waxes poetic about his subverted boyhood dreams--scenes milked for maximum farcicality by a witty combination of set props, lighting and nostalgic music. Prince was complimented and almost upstaged by a courageous performance by Mowth as the fast-talking Machiavellian, Ballas. In the most difficult role in the play, Mowth demonstrated a fine sense of timing with Ballas' complicated speeches and an ability to recover quickly even when one of Ballas' convoluted lines momentarily escaped him. In the supporting cast, Pete Wilson '99 was very entertaining doing double duty...
...essay on Mohandas Gandhi, George Orwell declared that saints must be presumed guilty until proved innocent. The earthly life of Thomas More, saint though he be, makes such presumption easy. More was a consummate political insider, upwardly mobile in a Machiavellian age and seemingly indispensable at the volatile court of England's tyrannical Henry VIII. With crafty language and veiled speech, he was master of the legalistic surmise and the affidavit of denial. He was the pre-eminent lawyer of the realm. At the same time, More could spit scatology with the foulest pamphleteers in that feverish dawn...
...almighty deity. For example, he comes to Earth having no idea what peanut butter is--he literally probes the jar for minutes and waxes poetic over the gooey sweetness. Later in the movie, however, he offers his own perspective on the IRS and denounces a fellow character's "Machiavellian machinations." Fast learner...