Word: merest
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...still there is a sense of self-possession, and even stealth, about the kingdom that suggests it will not easily fall hostage to the people it attracts. For perhaps the most alluring attribute of Thailand is its simple ambiguity, the merest hint that its designs are always subtler than any visitor's perception of them. The Thais like to remind foreigners that theirs is the only Asian country never to have been colonized or occupied by a Western power, and even if this reflects nothing but the culture's gift for co-opting foreign influences, it also suggests its facility...
...going on, to break the unvoiced conspiracy of acceptance. Bush and the "student" wince toward each other asymptotically, oozing what the one hopes is concern and the other hopes is deference. "Touch her," says the director, "on the shoulder." Breaking the perimeter of mutual embarrassment, Bush makes the merest contact and murmurs inaudibly something about her family. As a whistle- blower, the Vice President has been miscast...
Eventually, however, the gods smiled on the ambitious endeavor. The rosy- fingered dawn that broke over the Greek air force base at Heraklion last Saturday was accompanied by only the merest zephyrs, perfect flight weather for Daedalus. Temperatures were mild, in the high 60s, ensuring that Kanellopoulos would not burn himself out during the long flight. By 3 a.m., most members of the team were awake. Some made last-minute checks of the weather, while others gently assembled the spindly pink-silver-and-white plane and carried it to the runway. At 7:06 Kanellopoulos eased his 156-lb. frame...
...Thomas is black. But she seems to regard her race as the merest coincidence. When she hears the term role model, she cringes. "I never felt I had to have a role model," she says. "It was like, 'O.K., I want to be a doctor, and I want to be a skater, and I'm going to.' I didn't think I had to see a black woman do this to believe it's possible." Her burgeoning mail tells her that in spite of herself, she has been an inspiration to young black women and is about to become...
...part, the drama of the Bush-Rather match (otherwise the merest blip in the history of a presidential campaign) derived from Rather's departure from the ritual expectations: the network news star addressing the Vice President of the U.S. is expected to be earnest and anchormanly but not nerved up for a duel, an affair of honor. People do not expect the anchorman to behave like a samurai...