Word: preciously
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...kind of obiter dictum that grows more frequent as the book progresses, "that biography and literary criticism are separate activities which must never be associated." The biography, certainly, is all there. But I, at least, would have liked even more lit crit than Sykes provides. There is precious little serious comment on Waugh, and when Sykes does turn to the nuts and bolts of criticism he proves himself both competent and perceptive...
...Davos, Switzerland. A two-day snow has covered and closed the 400-meter speed-skating oval. Skaters from Poland, Canada and the U.S. jog through the quiet alpine village, play poker, and fret. "We've got to skate," says U.S. Sprint Specialist Peter Mueller. "We're losing precious time." At last, late in the afternoon, the ice is cleared and the Americans lace up. Their arms swinging in the hypnotic rhythm of the workout, the skaters seem oblivious to the cold and stinging snow. Round, round, round they go, fluid figures in the fading light...
Speed skaters hate the strong midday sun. Its rays can heat-and slow-the surface of the ice and cost racers precious hundredths of a second. Victory literally can hang on a passing cloud. It also depends on technique. Speed is generated by the piston power of the leg; the deeper the racing crouch the greater distance the piston can extend. Arms play no part, except on the turns, when racers swing them metronomically to develop what they call "the slingshot" effect. Skates are a streamlined amalgam of 16-in. blades and ankle-high boots of soft kangaroo leather...
...this aloofness between us was Precious, a bastardized mouse of a chihuahua. Precious was the yin and yang of the Connally marriage--on any given night the pitch and frequency of the despicable creature's yaps would reveal the flow of the marital battle--the advances and retreats of the two sides, the victories, the losses...
There was more to Precious, of course, than vaps. The rodent was an emblem of a lifestyle, a get-married, settle-down, buy-a-house routine that seemingly afflicted everyone in Danvers as soon as high school closed its doors on them. Bereft of such designs, I had difficulty relating to people who would want the beast yapping underfoot...