Mr. Mamet and Mr. Leonard are not necessarily bad models to emulate, but the imitation here, skillful though it may be, is also so slavish and self-congratulatory that there is very little to enjoy, and less to admire.
He's a brilliant writer – but we're socialised to go to the theatre to have an experience that's self-congratulatory, that we paid for, and if we're not given that experience, we go elsewhere for that validation of our politics and taste".
What's most galling is that he's so high-minded and self-congratulatory that he considers himself above politics, as if that were where a president should situate himself.
It was a children's book written by his daughter Jessica, and it included a congratulatory note that emphasized the importance of fatherhood.
Mr. Miller, who holds season tickets, and other council members omitted the congratulatory speeches that have become customary after passing a law, enabling him to depart for an early afternoon game between the Yankees and the Minnesota Twins.
Upon winning Indonesia's presidency last year, Joko Widodo received congratulatory messages that were not just from the usual array of world leaders.
The lottery also sent Mauch a congratulatory letter that would drive any NASCAR fan to celebrate: The $4,400 package -- including two tickets to this weekend's races, lodging, transportation and $400 -- was indeed hers.
An edge of radical politics is tacit in such work, but hardly ever with the self-congratulatory air that is so tedious in the annals of conceptual art.
I can't help thinking of the self-congratulatory images that fill our screens whenever a hospital undertakes such "mercy missions".
He ends on a self-congratulatory note that has a smug tone similar to that of the people he has been frying.
