Word: gab
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Governor Long was farm-born 35 years ago at Winnfield in the upper part of the state. At 13 he peddled school books, developed an amazing gift of gab. Then he took to selling a lard substitute, conducting baking contests. The winner of such a contest in Shreveport became his wife. He hustled through a three-year college course in seven months to jump headlong into state politics-''on the people's side." His campaigns were never dull and usually triumphant. The cities to the south were against him but in the northern reaches of the state...
When he speculated upon the most common of all human pastimes, Talking, it appeared to Milton ("Dance Marathon") Crandall that the purpose of this sport was to see who could talk the longest. Accordingly he announced a "noun and verb rodeo, the world's championship gab-fest," and set up a ticket-taker at the gate of an armory in Manhattan...
When the boring competition ended, Betty Wilson, a swimmer, and Howard Williams, a steeplejack and flagpole sitter, were tied for first prize. Promoter Crandall suggested that they talk off the tie. The gab fest cost Promoter Crandall $12,000 and he derived no financial profit from his game...
...swapping. Whether he was better off in Ohio, who can say-his son's possessions were "a wife, six children, two cows, one hog, a blind mare, and a sense of sad humor"; his grandson's a keen Irish sense of pathos, a true Irish gift of gab...