Word: gaff
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...when that war ended, Tojo the Younger was graduated from Tokyo's Imperial Military Academy. For 29 years his military career was unremarkable, but in 1934 Major General Tojo, as Chief of the Military Inquiry Department, achieved his first international press by committing a colossal gaff. He declared with strange clairvoyance: "The United States, Russia and China, knowing that Japan is likely to be confronted with various international difficulties in November, 1935, are steadily preparing for war." Apparently the Kwantung Army had cooked up an "incident" for November 1935. General Tojo was obliged to state that he had really...
...entered Edajima Naval Academy. He worked hard enough to graduate second in his class, for which the Emperor gave him a pair of binoculars. His first cruise was to the U.S. His first gaff was in the Russo-Japanese War, when he joined the cruiser Saiyen as navigating officer and a few days later navigated her, despite the Imperial spyglasses, onto a mine. She sank, and most of the officers and crew with her. Nomura says of his survival: "Ship she go down; me I come up." The Navy made Navigator Nomura a diplomat. He served in Vienna and Berlin...
...died when a roar of British throats took its place. Down the sky like an aimless maple-seed pod fluttered a crippled Fiat. Two parachutes opened and floated down. They were seen to land on the sea, but the gear dragged the pilots down before a destroyer could gaff them...
...Fort Wayne hotel 19-year-old Waitress Ethel Gaff saw to it that a lean, greying old man ate his luncheon in peace, stood popeyed when one of his associates left a $46 tip (for a $4 check), thought it must be a mistake. Next day in Detroit Harry Bennett, personnel director of Ford Motor Co., explained: "I left the money purposely. . . . She did a very good job. . . particularly in keeping curiosity seekers away from Mr. Ford...
...doubting Thomas was naive enough to expect the War Department to endanger its $15,000,000 investment in Garands, he was soon disillusioned. Reluctantly, under conditions which prohibited any positive test, the Army last week pitted six Garands (fired in relays so that no single gun took the gaff) against two of Melvyn Maynard Johnson Jr.'s rival semiautomatics...