Word: gruff
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...devotee of detective fiction knows, the most famous police station in the country is Author Ed McBain's 87th Precinct, where the cops are gruff, sentimental and occasionally fallible, but almost always good at their jobs. Fuzz is based on a blotter full of their exploits, but if the boys at the 87th ever see it, they'll have an open and shut case of criminal impersonation on their hands...
That kind of sentiment is typical of Laurel McKelva Hand, who is the Optimist's Daughter by his first long, happy marriage. Morally exacting and spiritually stern, Laurel is very much her mother's girl. The Optimist himself is gruff, generous Judge Clinton McKelva of Mount Salus, Miss...
BACK IN RALEIGH, I wait for an interview at the headquarters, and down a Pepsi--another popular Southern invention. The big man working at the gas station gets gruff when I ask him how many people he's seen going in over there. "I hope nobody does, I hope nobody votes for that son-of-a-bitch. I'm for Humphrey," and he roars with laughter. Should I believe...
...Cowboyin'," the cook confides to the eager kid, "is somethin' you do when you can't do nothin' else." At its best moments The Culpepper Cattle Co. puts across several such gruff insights about a way of life now long past...
...maneuvered a small rented car into the cortege of black limousines. Then a carload of Gallo's associates came alongside and ordered Willwerth off the road. He made it to the cemetery anyway. Visiting the scene of the Gallo killing, Umbertos Clam House, he was warned in gruff terms by the hefty proprietor to avoid any use of his name. "Then," says Willwerth, "he took my name for future reference...