Word: armpit
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...zooful of rodents which have become infested with rat fleas, among them prairie dogs, picket-pin gophers, ground squirrels, chipmunks. The Public Health Service called the disease "sylvatic (woodland) plague." It is still bubonic, in the sense that it can cause swelling of the lymph glands of the armpit or groin, but it has become so rare that the word plague could well be dropped...
...tang of fresh cut wood" and an enormous dumb peasant, feared by all the other kids, who sang a song "composed of two syllables, the only ones he could pronounce . . . From beneath [his] red shirt he extracted a succession of sounds [by putting his right hand under his left armpit, then pumping his left arm against it] which were somewhat dubious but very rhythmic ... At home I set myself with zeal to imitate this music-so often and so successfully that I was forbidden to indulge in such an indecent accompaniment." That was Stravinsky's first brush with rhythm...
Winston Churchill had some tailored shirts coming to him from Manhattan, but first the shirtmaker had some missing measurements coming to him. Unaware of the demands of true haute couture, the barrelly Briton had left only his neck-size (17½) and inside sleeve-length (20 from armpit to cuff). Cabled the shirtmaker: "Please send one old shirt for use as a model." He could scarcely do a proper job, he explained, without the outside sleeve-length, chest and waist measurements...
...curative value of swimming. With all weight removed from his blighted limbs, he found that he could stand in fresh water to his chin. Half a year later he could stand erect with the water only at his shoulders; in another six months he could make it at armpit-level...
...forward cockpit just behind and between the two pilots. From there he took pilots' blood pressures, counted respirations by watching the rhythmic rise & fall of the little flow indicator ball in the oxygen control box (most flying was done at heights requiring masks), took pulses and armpit temperatures, watched for trembling, pallor, changes in pupil size. In all, he observed 16 different men during the ordeal by flak. Only three showed no fright reaction...