Word: stand-offish
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...Harvard—had begun to fade by the time Zachary I. Baron ’04-’05 arrived at RH, which he says was then in “a wussier phase.” “It was kind of a nerdy, stand-offish, hostile group that kind of looked down at other people,” says Baron, now an editor at the Village Voice. For him, that group represented “a real low in terms of the station’s interface with the greater community...
First of all, make sure you smile, even if it’s sort of a half-grin. After all, you want to at least give the impression that you’re actually a nice person. If you enter a room with a stern face and gruff, stand-offish demeanor, even I would run away. Second, although it may go against your Harvard instinct, master the art of small talk. That doesn’t mean you should talk about the weather—unless you’re trying to engage an ESPP concentrator with your knowledge...
...think the guys were trying to play off of them, and maybe as a result were a little stand-offish in terms of being assertive themselves,” Sullivan said. “[The guards] are still learning how to play with those guys, how to play off those guys...
...Theresa feels a strong humanist obligation that is met by her line of work, teaching deaf children in a New York elementary school. She singles out a black girl in the class named Amy to concentrate her care and affection on, a trying task that is compounded by the stand-offish attitude of Amy's hate-filled older brother. The scenes showing Theresa striving to win over Amy's trust number among the more poignant encounters in the film, giving the viewer a taste of Dunn's better side. But the effect is quickly and skillfully erased when the camera...
...More interesting characters, like the island's hermit Mad Billie, and a fast-talking island slicker named Quickfellow, have neither history nor room for growth. The filmmakers also fail to develop some intriguing themes: Conroy must have influenced his children's lives beyond the classroom, but when their usually stand-offish parents strike to protest Conroy's dismissal, there is no explanation for the growth of their militancy. At times we see creators tug to pull their fable together: a midwife portentously tells Conroy, to "treat the kids right, and they'll do right by you," and he explains...