Word: bolt
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...lightning bolt of uncertainty had crashed into a campaign that was shaping up as a likely Democratic blowout. Suddenly, the battle between a flagging incumbent and his brash young challenger was transformed into a weird tag-team contest in which the newcomer might join forces with one man against the other -- or beat up on both of them simultaneously. And the complicated debate calculus that had been at the center of weeks of negotiations was skewed by the prospect of an unprecedented three-way debate...
More mundane experiences are conveyed just as pierceingly. The ocean at sunset "shines silvery like a bolt of shot silk." A swimming pool on a hot day is "polar cold. After a while cold feels like a different kind of warmth, hypothermal hypnosis, a fugue state, sweet...
...primaries, Bush reached out to independents in the fall with the "kinder and gentler" clean-air and child-care initiatives, and he won easily. But in a three-man race, such overtures may be unnecessary, even unwise. Conservative Republicans have never really liked or trusted Bush, and they could bolt to Perot if the President starts sounding moderate again...
...recalls a colleague who invited him to do an exam on a patient under the false guise of a consultation because "she has a body you won't believe." Another physician, whenever faced with an "emotional" female patient, would draw in his notes a stick figure with a lightning bolt going into its head and write down a nonsensical diagnosis of "zigzybiasis," signifying "This patient is crazy." A pediatrician habitually marked his notes with a smiley face when a young patient had a good-looking mother...
...meet in their respective state capitals in mid-December to cast their official votes. These electors are local political activists who run on slates chosen by each ^ candidate's organization. Though some states try to bind electors to vote for their nominee, these laws are not enforced when electors bolt. Still, party and personal loyalty would probably keep the vast majority faithful...