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Examples

  • The husband-and-wife producers of the Oscar-nominated film "Precious" will be working with the author and a screenwriter to adapt the humorous heroine -- a wise-cracking third-grader -- for the big screen.

    News Junkies 2010

  • It was a hot mid-August afternoon two weeks into the trip and one of my three NOLS instructors, Bean Bowers -- bad-ass, wise-cracking and always over-caffeinated -- chose me to belay him while he climbed.

    Adrian Margaret Brune: Patagonia Climber Bean Bowers: 1973-2011, He Always Picked Himself -- And Others -- Up Again Adrian Margaret Brune 2011

  • I close my eyes and listen to his laugh — the mix of a rumbling clearing of his throat and a wise-cracking guffaw.

    Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Dad Jack Canfield 2011

  • Women were written independent yet vulnerable, sassy with a good head on shoulders; men had bravado and strength, they were wise-cracking yet flawed, which gave them room to grow and become better men in order to win the dame's heart.

    Emily Bracken: Romantic Comedies Are Dying Because Romance Is Dead Emily Bracken 2011

  • I close my eyes and listen to his laugh — the mix of a rumbling clearing of his throat and a wise-cracking guffaw.

    Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Dad Jack Canfield 2011

  • The Australian author John Flanagan seems to have his finger on this pulsing anxiety; it certainly explains the enormous success of his recently concluded "Ranger's Apprentice" series, in which young warriors in an alternate Viking society grow to maturity under the hard-eyed and sometimes wise-cracking guidance of adult mentors.

    In Brief: Children's Books 2011

  • Veteran mystery writer Ace Atkins is finishing a new novel expected to be published in spring 2012 about Spenser, the wise-cracking P.I. from Boston who inspired the 1980s TV show "Spenser: For Hire," starring Robert Urich.

    'Spenser' and 'Jesse Stone' Survive Writer's Death Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg 2011

  • After sustaining "American Idol" in the wake of Simon Cowell 's departure, Fox Broadcasting is now bringing the wise-cracking talent judge back to its network in the fall to headline an ambitious slate of new shows, including several comedies and a drama with dinosaurs.

    Fox Lineup Includes Simon Cowell, Dinosaurs, Mean Girls Lauren A. E. Schuker 2011

  • But Kadrey's Stark is hard-boiled -- not just self-conscious and wise-cracking, but bereft of hope, burning with anger, without any of that self-reflexive, cutesy stuff that writers put in when they're worried about sounding like a poseur.

    Boing Boing 2009

  • But "The Free World" is a pale, wise-cracking creature in comparison with the angry and full-throated work of Henry Roth or Bernard Malamud—or of the Canadian-Jewish standard-bearer Mordecai Richler.

    Lost in Transit Sam Sacks 2011

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