Nor does it make Strauss-Kahn's behavior, which certainly seems to have involved a sordid act in a strange setting, suddenly admirable.
The mystique of thoroughbred racing (the bonnets, the juleps, "My Old Kentucky Home") has always been a function of obscuring its roots in gambling, of playing down the sordid act of betting in favor of the cleaner, classier aspects of the track.
The report revealed that as many as 37 priests accused of inappropriate behaviour around children or sexual abuse of minors were still in active ministry even after the archdiocese learned of the allegations.The report outlined some of the sordid acts perpetrated by priests and how the archdiocese endangered the welfare of children by neglect.
I can only speculate on the variety of sordid acts you'll be performing with this thing.
Watching your own blood ooze from a cut you made yourself, burning your thigh with a cigarette, vomiting in a restaurant bathroom after a meal, letting yourself look like a derelict -- all the sad and sordid acts associated with "the dark side" -- are in reality little more than pop-culture clichés.
Against this backdrop, my act felt sordid.
The final act in this sordid drama will be the listing by Rosneft, a state-owned oil company that bought most of Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos's main subsidiary, through another dodgy auction at the end of 2004.
Chéreau has pulled off many feats in his opera-directing career — notably, his monumental 1976 production of the "Ring," at Bayreuth, and his glamorous and sordid presentation of the three-act version of Berg's "Lulu," in 1979.
The girl, a defense lawyer told the jury, had hatched the sordid tale of abuse as an act of revenge against Mr. Weberman and against a religious community she found stifling and rulebound.
We are all for forgiveness and second acts, but Libya's sordid human rights record and continuing police state tactics should not be forgotten.
Welcome to the deranged world of Joe Orton who only wrote three terrific full-length plays and four one acts in his short, sordid life.
