Word: coomber
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...looks a lot more dangerous than it really is," maintains Alex Coomber, the reigning women's World Cup champion. We'll take her word for it. A skeleton run begins with a 30-m sprint before the slider dives onto the 90-cm sled to hurtle around 15 steeply banked curves of the 1,500-m course. And without any mechanism for steering, sliders can control their descent only by shifting hips and shoulders. They risk losing precious 100ths of a second if they touch...
...Coomber clearly enjoys the challenge of races that last less than a minute. "Things are coming at you very fast," she says. "We only ever see three or four meters in front of us, yet the faster you go, the slower it feels." Coomber's day job - intelligence officer with the Royal Air Force - serves her well in rationalizing the inherent dangers in her sport. "When you look at it logically," she says, "you're only 10 centimeters above the ice, so there's no distance to fall." Not that much to worry about then...
...somewhat evanescent figure,--especially in Boston,--the theatre-going public wants to be harrowed or amused, The long and useful life of the "niftiest" mystery play, "The Bat", was ample proof of the popularity of the first. But even the theatre-going public, beyond a certain point, like Mr. Coomber in "Listening In", refuses to be frightened by something which it does not believe in. Ectoplasm, mysterious appearances, clutching hands, automatic writing, all serve their purpose in conducting hair-calisthenics. But to have them poked at half in earnest, half in mild satire, combines both the successful elements of horror...
...Listening In" singles out the much discussed spirit influence, takes it apart slowly and reduces it to highly laughable absurdity. The predicament of John Coomber, recipient of spirit warnings of train wrecks and tips on the stock exchange is truly pathetic. His unhappy question, "Am I to become a clearing house for human mistakes?" would bring tears,--tears of merriment,--to the eyes of any audience...
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