whole families grouped around tables, young heads bent over homework, dens aflicker with TV,

The flyman touched his hat, turned the horse, and drove back as directed.

[…] Brooks listens persuadably to their suggestions, many of which he carries out.

And in Washington, where the nine members of the Supreme Court are almost the only government officials who do not joust with the press corps, he maintained a strict justicelike silence when he appeared last week in the White House press room with Reagan — to the point, as one veteran journalist querulously put it, of “not even saying thank you” after his introduction.