Word: mastife
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...that he could better concentrate on the program. He ran two miles before breakfast every morning, sweated himself from 195 lbs. down to a flat-bellied 168. To train himself to handle a capsule tumbling out of control through space, Glenn spent hours spinning giddily in the fiendishly contrived "Mastif" (multiple axis space test inertia facility) that simultaneously rotated him in three directions, like a carnival ride gone amok. Time and again he rode the giant centrifuge that multiplied gravitational pull to simulate the strains of take-off and landing. Despite his years, Glenn showed the least heart fluctuation...
...useful stars. He took training in desert survival and practiced squirming out of a Mercury capsule while it was tossing on a choppy sea. He learned about weightlessness by flying in high-speed airplanes as they curved over the top half of an outside loop. He rode in a MASTIF (Multiple Axis Space Test Inertia Facility), a training device that tumbles on three axes, and learned how to bring it to an even keel. In quieter moments he studied astronautics, aviation biology, astronomy, meteorology and astrophysics. Always, he kept in top physical shape...
From now on, proclaimed the Trib, words of more than one syllable ending in "ff" will end simply in "f," e.g., distaf, sherif, tarif, midrif, bailif, mastif, rifraf. (One-syllable words like cuff, scoff and fluff will keep the "ff.") Also doomed to Trib extinction: the letters "ph" within a word, which will be replaced by "f," e.g., anglofobe, sofistry, sofomore, sofisticate, biografy. Magnanimously, the Trib granted "ph" the right to continue to exist at the start of words, e.g., philosofy, photog-rafer. Explained Amputator Astley-Cock: "It is a wise policy to recognize the universally valid principle of festina...
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