Huckster

huckster



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–noun 

1. a retailer of small articles, esp. a peddler of fruits and vegetables; hawker. (叫賣小販)

2. a person who employs showy methods to 

effect a sale, 

win votes, etc.: 



the crass (粗魯的) methods of [political] hucksters.  



3. a cheaply mercenary person. 

4. Informal.

a. a persuasive and aggressive salesperson. 

b. a person who works in the advertising industry, esp. one who prepares aggressive advertising for radio and television. 

 

–verb (used with object), verb (used without object) 

5. to deal, as in small articles, or to make petty bargains: to huckster fresh corn; to huckster for a living. 

6. to sell or promote in an aggressive and flashy manner.  





　

The movie has otherwise been cast with dependable (perhaps infallible) British comic actors. The first time Hugh Grant appeared on screen, I chuckled for no good reason at all, just as I always do when I see Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth or Jack Nicholson--



because I know that whatever the role, they will [infuse] it with more than the doctor ordered. 



Grant can play a male Bridget Jones (as he did in "Notting Hill"), but he's better as a cad, and here he surpasses himself by lying to Bridget about Darcy and then cheating on her with a girl from the New York office. (An "American stick insect," is what Bridget tells her diary.) 



It is a universal rule of romantic fiction that 

all great love stories must be [mirrored] by their low-comedy [counterpoints]. 



Just as Hal woos Katharine, Falstaff trifles with Doll Tearsheet. If Bridget must choose between Mark and Daniel, then her mother (Gemma Jones) must choose between her kindly but easy-chair-loving husband (Jim Broadbent) and a [dashing] huckster for a TV [shopping channel].





scavenger hyenas

vulture 

haggard (face & eyes)

haggle (bargain, mangle)

monger

Too uneventful for you? Not enough action? 

For me, Shyamalan's [approach] is more effective than smash-and-grab [plot]-mongering. 

pangolin shrew weasel

possum

to [feign] sleep or death. 

The baseball broke the window, but the children [played possum] when asked who had thrown it.

Meager





serpent 

Be wise as [serpents], yet innocent as doves. 

mercenary 

Dingy



cavil (unnecessarily) 

carp

quibble 

prevaricate (mislead)

equivocate (ambiguous to mislead) cf. weasel

Castigate