Word: crab
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...week off (in Virginia, as in all the South, the Republicans do not count), three mavericks were out to break the firm grip which Senator Byrd keeps on the governor's mansion of his home state. Debate waxed hot on Virginia's hustings. At pre-primary barbecues, crab feasts and picnics, Harry Byrd's obedient lieutenants acted like men who had to work for votes...
This is known among crewmen as "catching a crab," and is generally considered a fate worse than death, especially if it occurs during a race. Many time the effect of knifing in is not so devastating as described above, but even the slightest tendency toward this mistake will unbalance the boat and cause the oarsmen on the opposite side to "wash out," finishing their stroke with oars partly out of the water...
...only does this give the shell a long, fast run between strokes, but it lets the crew pause before the catch rather than at the end of the pull, thereby reducing the possibility of catching a crab...
...college is swaying in the unwieldy ring," as Lowell reported it. A wreath of flowers was hung from one branch, and there were horse battles among the crowd to reach the wreath and tear out a handful of became more savage. Undergraduate organizations sent picked goon squads to crab the flowers, and the Tree Exercise "uniform" changed to old clothes and football outfits...
...hand spread out on the table. It lives - it is me . . . It is lying on its back. It shows me its fat belly. It looks like an animal turned upside down. The fingers are the paws. I amuse myself by moving them very rapidly, like the claws of a crab which has fallen on its back . . . I can't suppress it, nor can I suppress the rest of my body, the sweaty warmth which soils my shirt . . . If I exist, it is because I am horrified at existing. I am the one who pulls myself from the nothingness...