Word: khamsin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Double Play. Meanwhile, though the Arabs continued to talk tough, they were busy looking for exits through which they could escape with honor. The plain fact was that, as Arab and Jew squared off for battle in the hazy heat of a khamsin desert wind, no one wanted the battle to start. From the beginning, the crisis had been the product of massive miscalculations. Nasser, who has repeatedly and publicly warned that the Arabs are not yet strong enough to take on Israel, made the first mistake by signing a mutual defense pact with his fellow leftists in Syria...
Irrational Behavior. Santa Ana-like phenomena are not confined to Southern California. Similar hot, dry wind sweeping down mountain slopes is called "foehn" (pronounced, approximately, fain) in Austria and Germany, "chinook" along the U.S. and Canadian Rockies, "sky sweeper" on Majorca, "khamsin" in Israel, and "the Canterbury northwester" in New Zealand...
...blow, the winds stir strange human actions. In Munich, as in Los Angeles, most residents are convinced that the foehn causes general lassitude, irrational behavior, suicides and an increase in crime. Israelis swear that headaches, asthma, high blood pressure, mental aberrations and other assorted ills are accentuated during the khamsin. In Sicily and some Arab nations, courts have considered the hot, dry winds as mitigating circumstances for those accused of crimes committed while they blow...