Word: backspins
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Only Playwright-Actor-Producer Noel Coward managed to give the door a backspin. After two shows (Together with Music, Blithe Spirit), Sponsor Ford Motor Co. decided Coward was "too sophisticated" and vetoed his third show, a version of his 1943 play Present Laughter, scheduled for May. Said Coward amiably: "If they don't like it, I'll do another for them. After all, I've written 26 plays and it shouldn't take long to whip out a new one." Mollified, Ford settled for a TV interpretation of Coward's superpatriotic This Happy Breed...
...tears rolled down his face after he lost one tough game. The Indianapolis champ got homesick despite roller coasters, popcorn and free rides on fire engines. Said he: "I'm worried about my rabbits." When they talked shop, they debated only one question: who had backspin on shooters and who didn't. Backspin, to make the shooter stick in the ring, was the key to success on the slick cork rings, which were faster than dirt. No one gave away any trade secrets. Roanoke asked Columbia, S.C.: "Ever play for fun?" Columbia answered scornfully: "Whaddaya mean...
Unlucky Rabbit's Foot. After three days, Roanoke's Larry Vinson had eliminated five rivals. His backspin was working fine, he drew his marble nicely, cleaned out the ring time after time in one turn. But on the last day, Larry's rabbit's foot failed just when he needed it most. He bit his lip, said nothing, shed not a tear...
...National League batsmen had been trying to fathom Rip Sewell's pet pitch. Rip called it an ephus ball after an old crap-shooting phrase, ephusiphus-ophus; sportswriters called it a blooper. Whatever its name, it was lobbed up to the plate, fat and inviting, with lots of backspin-and, if hit, usually popped up high in the air to the second-baseman...
...doors. Behind the receiver is another slot called a grille. Sloping down toward the court over these recesses and over the wall behind the receiver is a shedlike roof called a penthouse. The server serves the ball with a mighty cut, the deadliest trick being to make the ball backspin when it hits the penthouse roof and drop to the court "like a poached egg, limp, lifeless and with little bound." If this fails and a rally starts, the players may try to sink the ball in certain of the apertures for points...