Word: impromptu
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...poor food, gradually drove the students to eating in public taverns. The attempts of the authorities to enforce the rules soon aroused the students to active revolts in which they met force with force. The simplest and most popular expression of disapproval of the food consisted in impromptu bombardments, when the offending meats, ples, and puddings were hurled about the room, followed, in the more acute manifestations, by the table ware and utensils...
...much as the youngish ones. They all loved Miss Miller. They never noticed that her voice was a shade shallow and twangy, or that Wendy was a mite too old, or Hook a spot stagey. Being modern children, they might have been disappointed had the company been more impromptu and not quite so technically competent...
...speech was forced upon the Italian Dictator by an impromptu parade of War veterans who, followed by a dense crowd of swarthy Italians, had come to swear undying fealty to Benito. With strong, rasping voices, the people called for him to appear. Tardy in obeying the wishes of the plebs, "caro Benit" drove the assembled populace into a frenzy. Drawing themselves up to their full height, the units of the crowds made a noise that would have shamed the efforts of a herd of wounded bulls. Benito, unable to resist, dashed onto the balcony. Hats were thrown into...
...reappearance of the idol of two generations. Then the stage lights were lowered, just as Paddy first had them lowered in the same place early in the 90's. Then-the Schubert-Liszt Hark, Hark, the Lark, the melting melody of the 'Schubert B-flat Impromptu, and the inevitable Chopin group: Etudes, hurled like glittering lances, and a Scherzo that stung, bit and cooed seductively. Then encores-until the approach of the zero hour when gendarmes forcibly dispersed the immovably enraptured diehards...
There is his brother Philip Gibbs-whom he admires tremendously-who, when forced upon a lecture platform, always looks like a "frightfully tired Savonarola who is speaking in a trance." And there are Hamilton's own sensations on such occasions, when he always gives impromptu speeches. There is his visit to America where he met John Drew, the "Squire of Easthampton and the gardenia of the American stage"; his meeting with the "wistful Charlie Chaplin, who hides the soul of Punchinello beneath the comic rags of slapstick"; and that "delightful, naive and unconceited man, Will Rogers, who will never...