Word: vapid
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...story that has left some locals unconvinced. For them, the Titanic Quarter is as much a developers' dream as a civic endeavor. "The Titanic is of such importance to the city and to Western culture," says Belfast-born Bill Neill, Professor of Spatial Planning at Aberdeen University, "but this vapid project represents a whitewashed history. [The developers] are inventing a past that never existed...
...soul of “The Trojan War Will Not Take Place!” was its acting. Convincingly ditzy and self-involved, Geraldine K. Prasuhn ’09 brought a vapid Helen to life. As her foil, the war-weary Hector, Christopher J. Carothers ’11 embodied the disillusionment and despair that Giraudoux associates with war. Carothers infused his character with just the right combination of masculine pride and unwavering dedication to family. The stark contrast between Carothers and Prasuhn spoke to the struggle between the themes of fate and free will that dominated the play...
...indeed, one reason Ron Paul’s extreme views have found so much support is that he seems freer of the artifice that holds so many others in a tenacious grip. Under the present system, a show of emotion amounts to a crack in the gleaming, vapid exterior to reveal the hopes, worries, and humanity that underlie it. It’s disconcerting because although we like to admire our candidates from afar and know the intimate details of their lives, what we really want is not a personal connection but a dependable president. But some of the world?...
Unnavigable bureaucracy, administrative inertia, and monstrous political ambitions have long been the hallmarks of our undergraduate student government. Every year, new candidates take their turns, promising the same old types of reforms articulated in an incomprehensibly detailed platform summarized by a few vapid slogans. But every year, following the election, the UC recedes back into barely noticed oblivion as the new administration neglects—due to incompetence, impracticality, or usually both—the promises so recently made...
...release of “Ratatouille,” I attempted to expand my interest from books to movies. Unfortunately, American cinema de cuisine tends to be as soulless as mainstream American cooking. Witness this summer’s “No Reservations,” a painfully vapid remake of the sublime, German “Mostly Martha.” Then, in mid-July, I discovered the Schlesinger Library, one of the undiscovered jewels of Harvard. Located in the Radcliffe Yard, Schlesinger is an epicurean’s dream, with stacks upon stacks of food writing, from...