Word: aback
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That irascible old Bull Mooser, Harold Le Claire Ickes, was 58 when Franklin Roosevelt was elected President in 1932; he had put in nearly 30 years fighting for lost political causes, and he seemed almost taken aback at finding himself on the winning side at last. He recovered quickly. In 13 years as Secretary of the Interior, Honest Harold (a nickname that made him squirm) became a national institution. His bristling incorruptibility, his old-fashioned reformer's views, his endless suspicions of all other politicos, his Donald Duck temper and acid-tongued campaign speeches made him a figure unique...
...love with an actress, and just when Misia was feeling most deeply forsaken, Jose Maria Sert, the Spanish painter, walked into her apartment wearing a sombrero and Spanish cape. Before leaving, he asked her to go to Rome with him for a few weeks. Amused, irritated and taken aback, she heard herself say she would be delighted. With Sert she "knew what it was to have a dazzled heart," and for the first time had the "calm and frightening feeling of something final...
...chuckled, promised to see what he could do for the boy. "But I can only stay in Argentina if you bring my family here," said El Galleguito. "How big a family do you have?" asked Peron, taken aback. "Mother, father, and 19 brothers and sisters," said El Galleguito. Perón said he'd think it over...
Vishinsky thanked her, handed the bird to an aide, and marched inside the building. "Are you going to keep my bird?" Anny asked. "Of course I'm keeping it," replied Vishinsky. Anny was taken aback. She was even more chagrined to find herself erroneously identified in Parisian papers next day as a representative of a Communist women's organization. Terribly upset, Anny bought 59 more doves, sent one to each U.N. delegation (except, of course, the Russians). It wasn't the first time a Russian had grabbed a peace dove from the unsuspecting West...
Rivera was not the least taken aback. Pointing out that one of anthropology's favorite activities is reconstructing whole races from a few scattered bones, he snorted contemptuously, "the opinion of Mr. Romero is anti-anthropological...