Word: aback
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...colleagues were taken aback when Dutch Foreign Minister Joseph Luns showed up at a Common Market conference in Luxembourg in his stockinged feet. Red socks at that. Luns explained that his scarlet chaussures were actually a pair of knitted slippers. For sore feet? "No, but these are more comfortable than shoes. It makes me slightly smaller," said the 6-ft. 6-in. diplomat, "and I can think better...
Although the replies of Mao's comrades are not generally included in these papers, there is evidence that this style of polemic has been characteristic of secret meetings. When Mao seemed taken aback by the criticism leveled at him during the stormy Lushan conference, Peng Teh-huai, who had long received more than a fair share of abuse from the Chairman, lashed back at him. "You f-ed my mother for 40 days," Peng told Mao, "so why can't I f- yours for 20?" Recalling the incident later, Mao wryly observed: "Even 20 days wasn...
...very decrepit. After hesitating a moment, I walked in and read the sign: "One flight up to Mrs. Murray." As I climbed the winding stairs, a dark-haired woman, olive-skinned, appeared from a decaying red-carpeted, red-furnished living room. She came out so quickly I was taken aback. Cynically. I wondered how many months, it had been since the last likely mark had wandered...
First-Strike Theory. As kick-off speakers, the Russians did not make any startling proposals. Instead, they seemed eager for the U.S. to take its turn. The Soviets were probably taken aback by the candor and completeness of the American presentation. As TIME Correspondent John Steele reported from Helsinki, the whole thrust of U.S. tactics is to 1) convince the Soviets of the devastating strength of America's weaponry, and 2) persuade them that the U.S. seeks only a retaliatory second-strike capability that would be used in the event of an enemy attack...
...discuss ROTC. Ford had long had an arrangement with the CRIMSON whereby he told them the results of the CEP meetings provided that if he ever wanted to keep certain TEP proceedings secret, the CRIMSON editors would not attempt to get the information from other sources. He was taken aback to learn that the Globe did not consider itself bound by such strictures. When I persisted, Ford inquired heatedly, "Mr. Donham, why does the Globe have to write a story about this tomorrow...