Word: aback
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...very close did we see his glaring face," said Heder. "His wounds had festered horribly, filling with squirming maggots. One of the soldiers leaned over and asked, 'What happened to you?' He snarled back, 'I don't have to tell you anything.' "Taken slightly aback, the government soldiers explained that they only wanted to take him to a hospital and that there was no reason to be afraid. Then they suggested to him that, when interrogated, he tell their officers he had been shot by his own comrades when he had refused to obey orders...
...power manifest, some congressional observers believe, Mills in recent years grew tired of his chairmanship. But even his colleagues were taken aback when, late in 1971, Mills decided to make a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. The move proved to be disastrous, and Mills was ignominiously ignored at the 1972 party convention in Miami Beach; some associates date his decline from then. That campaign had other negative fallout...
...images of Frances Benjamin Johnston. She was an aggressive, energetic woman with a journalistic bent. Her photographs are exacting records of late 19th century American life, and her method--detached observation--refutes the notion that feminine perception is intuitive and spiritual instead of rational. Contemporaries were rather taken aback because she "drank beer, smoked and daringly showed her ankles"--a spirited soul indeed...
...ideological Jewry of silence and never, at no price and in no forum, will I ever vote for this document." Sneered Golda Meir: "I have lived through 50 years of political activity and never before have we had a comrade who set himself up as a messiah." Taken aback, Eliav announced that he would not vote...
...jerk upright in paroxysms of laughter when his side scores a point. At a meeting last Fall, he and Bok disagreed over a bit of financial minutia, and when evidence corroborating his position came forth from the audience, he lurched forward chuckling, his finger waggling at the somewhat taken aback Bok. Some observers swore they saw him stick out his tongue at the President...