Word: quotient
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...below); similarly, Vladimir Nabokov's literary handlers hope that The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941) will acquire Lolita's gilt by association. The first book Nabokov wrote in English (his workshop was the bathroom of his one-room Paris flat), Sebastian Knight has a low sex quotient and no nymphets. Instead, it is devoted to themes that novelists seem to be born with: the question of identity, the nature of reality, the task of the writer. Nabokov's treatment of these themes is idiomorphic; his form is flashingly and immutably his own. He is a Pirandellphic...
...ever written." What would he like to write next? Possibly more poetry, but "it will have to be in a new idiom-Four Quartets brought something to an end." Possibly "abstract prose." Possibly another play "which would be completely successful theatrically and give the highest possible quotient of poetry." Smilingly he added: "That's aiming at Shakespeare under different and more difficult conditions...
...Injelitance" Quotient. An organization in incipient decay can be recognized not only through the perfection of its architecture but also from its high "injelitance" quotient. Injelitance, says Parkinson, is "a high concentration of incompetence and jealousy" typified by "any individual who. having failed to make anything of his own department, tries constantly to interfere with other departments and gain control of the central administration." If such a man becomes boss, there soon develops "an actual competition in stupidity, people pretending to be even more brainless than they are." The only cure for such a situation, according to Parkinson...
...infectious grin and a saddle-tanned bald head, who has three immediate aides but can draw on the help of Camp Elliott's 400-man staff if he needs it. Grant's first problem was to find a yardstick for his research. "A man's intelligence quotient is of no value here," says Grant, "because intelligence isn't what helps a person in getting along with others. To measure ability to 'get along,' we hit on a social integration scale...
Comedian Skelton plays with fine restraint; his horid face wears a look of such battered averageness that it is hard to see in it the TV clown. As the typical suburban wife, Jean Hagen is as tersely true as the quotient of a questionnaire brought to life. Best of all, the picture is about something, and (thanks to Director Don Weis) never drops its sincere regard for its subject just to pick up a quick laugh. In mass-conscious Hollywood, it took courage to maintain the point that comedy is not always well served by funny lines...