Word: availing
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...fill up with gags, or maybe the nostalgic pull of earlier Beau Gestes remains too strong, even at this late date, to succumb to a jokester's darts. There is a great deal of falling about in the last half of the picture, to no great humorous avail...
Police have checked mental hospital records, tracked dozens of suspects for days, investigated many false confessions, and even talked to a few nervous wives who suspected they were married to the killer - all to no avail. Law authorities have also had witnesses hypnotized to aid their recall of details, and have vainly asked astrologers to predict the next killing- just on the chance that the murderer is himself a follower of astrology...
Prisoners resort to all sorts of stratagems to throw a dog off the trail. Some escapees have sprinkled pepper on their shoes or changed clothes -to no avail. Sloshing through a stream works, at least until the fugitive steps on dry ground and the dog is able to pick up the scent again. Surprisingly, a runaway's best defense is dry weather, which can often blend all local smells together, making them indistinguishable to a hound. Thus when thunderstorms hit the Cumberlands last week after a dry spell, Don Daugherty knew by his old mountaineer's instinct that...
...least the tired formula of A loves-loses-regains B is avoided. Here, A loves and loses B but winds up happily with C (or, I should say, with D, since the current director Bill Gile has tinkered somewhat with the original script--to little avail...
...schools and hospitals to see what forms of insulation and heating devices would make them more energy efficient. (Under the plan, $900 million would be granted to the states to carry out such programs.) Caney tried reaching Democratic staffers on the House energy and power subcommittee, but to no avail; they were too busy. Finally, he got through-to Republican subcommittee aides. They listened, convinced Republican members who persuaded Democratic Chairman John Dingell that Caney had a point-and the subcommittee wrote the provision that Caney wanted into the bill...