Word: frenchmen
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...American slang to get out of a tough spot. He and two staffers were covering an Arab nationalist uprising in Tunisia in 1952, when his car was stopped by a large band of Arabs. "After many minutes of trying to convince them that we were les Americains and not Frenchmen, who were being shot at the time, the sheik called for silence, indicated he would give me the test. In complete silence he stuck his wrinkled face up to mine and said, with a look of infinite cunning, the only American word he knew: 'Okay.' I replied emphatically...
...little party moved off beneath a new Communist victory arch to three conference tents at the end of the runway. The Communists offered the Frenchmen tea with sugar, and Lucky Strikes. "They were very polite," said the helicopter pilot. "All they wanted was to be treated as soldiers according to their rank. But we didn't think very much about anything. The whole place was as silent as a graveyard, and when the wind kicked up, we could smell the death around...
Giap clearly intended to keep the delta Frenchmen off balance while he rested his 40,000 regulars from their pummeling at Dienbienphu and redeployed them from the malarial jungles before the monsoon set in. Giap's likely next moves: first, break Route Coloniale 5 and isolate Hanoi ; second, storm Hanoi...
...hallmarks of a Frenchman supposedly is le bon sens-common sense. But two Frenchmen have put out books about experiences that belie the national characteristic. One decided to penetrate the Amazonian jungle and make friends with cannibals. The other proposed crossing the Atlantic alone in a 15-ft. dinghy fitted with a single tiny sail. Both were displaying uncommon sense, which is the kind that turns the key on adventure and opens doors to discovery...
Pants in the Ants. In Journey to the Far Amazon, Explorer Alain Gheerbrant tells how, with one Colombian and two Frenchmen, he plunged into the "green hell" of the Sierra Parima between Venezuela and Brazil. That vast sea of vegetation, never before crossed by a white man, was filled with reptiles, insects and maiir eating fish, all unfriendly. One night in a grotto a scraping noise awakened Gheerbrant. It was an advancing column, 16 inches wide, of red ants. They had already devoured his belt, half his trousers and were starting on his leather camera case...