Word: mauna
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...inexperienced newcomers wasted long hours arguing about whether they or the Republicans had got stuck with the sunniest seats in the legislative chambers, once flew off to the Big Island to watch an eruption along the slopes of Mauna Loa. While the Democrats fiddled, crusty, Eisenhower-appointed Territorial Governor Sam Wilder King sat back and waited for them to run out of time. On the 50th day of the prescribed, 60-day 1955 session, Sam King vetoed the only two Democratic bills. This so disorganized the bewildered Democrats that they squabbled along to the end of the session...
Then, as it must in all sarong epics, catastrophe intrudes on the idyl. The island volcano (realistically played by Hawaii's erupting Mauna Loa) sends fiery lava streaming into the valley, and Jourdan's bride gets her orders from the kahuna to appease the gods by leaping into the angry crater...
Hawii's vast Mauna Loa erupts about once every three years, but this time was different. At 9:20 p.m., clouds over the 13,675-ft. peak parted to uncover a glow seen 200 miles away. Not from the crater, where it usually erupts, but out of the southwest flank of the mountain melted rock burst and shot 300 ft. up; steam shot higher to 20,000 ft., striking a passing plane. Through two other vents in the slope, streams of glowing lava oozed out, surged 25 miles...