Word: klaxons
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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QUALITY OF LIFE. I can hear the Klaxon horns blaring when I mention quality of life. Because surely I can admit that my weight diminishes it--right? Sorry to disappoint, but the truth is, my life is quite good...
...when Foale entered the spherical transfer node that connects the main module to Soyuz and the four other modules, he felt and heard a sudden, sickening thud. Somewhere on the outside of one of the station's modules, Progress had hit fast and hard. An instant later, a deafening Klaxon went off, a signal that Mir's electronic brain was also aware of the impact...
...Foale could tell, there was no way to determine where Progress had struck Mir. Lazutkin seemed to have assumed that the Spektr lab was leaking, and he was trying to seal it off. But what if he had guessed wrong? The noise from the Klaxon prevented Foale from speaking to Lazutkin, so all he could do was finish clearing the Soyuz hatch and then move on to Spektr to help his crewmate. When the Klaxon at last stopped, Foale turned to Lazutkin. "Why are we doing this?" he asked, out of breath...
...took a sedate standard like Laura or Chloe, played it straight for a minute and then revved it up double-time and orchestrated it for tuba, kazoo and other instruments that mimic indiscreet bodily functions. Then he set this raucous pastiche to a junkyard syncopation of washboards, cap pistols, Klaxon and bicycle horns, pie pans and garbage cans -- augmented by bird whistles, brays and tag lines from radio ads ("Super Suds!" "Bromo Seltzer!" "Beeeeee Ohhhhhh!") -- until the whole thing sounded the way Fibber McGee's closet clattered, the way a Tex Avery cartoon looks, the way Bart Simpson's mind...
...congregate in tight little clusters in the courtyard. We'd complain (It's cold. It's so cold out here. It's really, really cold); scan the crowd (oh, look--they're already sleeping together. I give them three weeks); describe what dreams we were having before the klaxon interruption (...then I hand in my blue book and I realize that everyone in the room is pointing at me and my TF is saying she'll take off points for showing up in the nude...