Word: shrewdly
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Shrewd rather than witty, this comedy of marriage succeeds in being entertaining because Edwin Burke, from whose play it was adapted, sensibly avoided the deeper implications of his subject. The idea of it is that married people get along better if they are not in love with each other. A girl who has seen her sister become possessive, jealous, dissatisfied because she was in love with her husband, makes a business deal with a gentleman, stipulating that she is to run his home and live with him at a salary of $25,000 and all expenses paid. The reversal, created...
...Shrewd...
...class post office means no city mail delivery. In Chicago Ben Minturn, onetime Florentine schoolmate of O'Brien, read of his friend's predicament, wrote a letter, enclosed a check for $1,000, ordered $900 in 2 cent stamps, $100 in 5 cent stamps, saved the day. Shrewd Friend Minturn could, of course, exchange his stamps for cash at the nearest post office...
When the Revolution came he was a big man. He corrected Thomas Jefferson's rhetorical Declaration of Independence, went to France as Commissioner, crowned his career by persuading France to recognize U.S. independence (March 20, 1778). In France he became the rage, his plain, shrewd honesty a cult. Turgot wrote a verse about him: Eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis-"He has snatched from heaven the thunderbolt and the scepter from tyrants." Ladies kissed him. Said he: "Somebody, it seems, gave it out that I lov'd Ladies; and then everybody presented me their Ladies (or the Ladies presented...
Says Author Faÿ: "The secret of Franklin was his memory and his shrewd cleverness. It was easy for him to recall the slightest detail of even distant events, and he had a plan for everything." In spite of his careful creed of moderation, Ben was "cheerful and fond of good living, a hearty drinker and a good story teller." Also, though Author Faÿ does not labor the point, Ben had little saintliness in his blood: in 1785 he had a great-grandson, the illegitimate son of the illegitimate son of his illegitimate son. Author Faÿ, ironic...