Word: ferrets
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Most common parental excuse for hooky-playing was the need to secure shelter space. By 9 every morning swarms of ferret-eyed, wax-skinned youngsters lined up with piles of bedding outside the tube shelters, waiting to go underground to hold the family "pitch" till nightfall. Inside they played on the long platforms of the subway stations, kept an eye open for the chance to steal a better sleeping space. Said one experienced moppet: "School? I got to get the seats ain't I? ... Ma goes home to do her work and sends me back to keep her place...
...have to junk some tenets of promotion by seniority. Stock Army retort to suggestions of promotion for merit has long been that such a system would encourage political toadying; but low-bracket officers must be found, even if dull-witted veterans are passed over to commission brainy tenderfeet. To ferret out officer material, all rookies are being interviewed in Big-Businesslike detail as to their education, past occupations, talent for furnishing public entertainment, favorite sports. Queries are couched in folksy phrases. Occupational aptitude quiz: "Just what...
...money orders on Hollywood stores; that they sent their clothes to be cleaned at specified cleaners with currency deposited in specified pockets. Year ago these charges were taken up by the Hollywood Reporter, which revealed that a local detective agency had been hired by the Screen Actors Guild to ferret out any misdemeanors. No report was ever made public by the Guild, but several months later Central had a new manager in blond, pipe-smoking Howard Philbrick, a former G-man who had made a name for himself in California with an investigation of graft in the State Legislature. Philbrick...
...extent of the damage was so great that a detective from the Cambridge police force was assigned to the situation. The officer could not ferret out the party guilty of the offense, but stated after investigation that he definitely "smelled...
Last week as Allied troops moved in to The Netherlands West Indies to guard the Aruba and Curasao oil refineries, South America became very quisling-conscious. Uruguay set up a "Dies" committee to ferret out wide-flung Nazi activities. Argentine police seized secret Nazi radio stations and broke up street demonstrations while Government officials warned Argentines that Hitler rule would destroy the civilization of centuries. Newspapers in Bolivia and Chile clamored for suppression of blatant Nazi activities. Colombia became jittery over the possibility of sabotage to her oil lines. Latin Americans suddenly realized what Germans have long known, namely that...