Word: numb
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Breathing heavily, his Bible under his arm, Poet John Milton climbed into the bridal bed. He read his "numb and stark" bride, Marie, a few snatches from the Song of Solomon ("How beautiful is my beloved ..."), marked the place with a rose petal, then pushed Marie out of bed to give thanks that the species had been created male and female. When Marie complained that the bridal party had given her a fierce hangover, Mr. Milton lost patience. "Phlegmatic and ungrateful wretch!" he barked. "What a froward, drivelling flibbergib have I taken to my bosom!" Then he booted...
...Friday we had the last hot food. . . . The hotel basement was jammed with the wounded and the stench was terrible. Sunday was the worst day. By that time shells seemed to be coming from all directions and we were getting rather numb. . . . There were dead lying all about. At first we had managed to bury them. Later we could only cover them with blankets, dashing out between shells to do it. Snipers were so close one of the prisoners we had put into the garden was semaphoring them with his hands...
Americans who entered Paris last week were amazed.* They had expected to find the Parisians starved, tattered, numb with oppression. Instead, the people looked about the same as they did before the Nazi occupation. The women had smart clothes and cosmetics, the children looked chubby and well-fed. There was plenty of beer and wine-even champagne...
...surest weapon against the roach is extreme temperature. The insect thrives between 70 and 80° Fahrenheit, but can be killed by dry air at 86°, becomes numb at 35°, dies at 23°. It is also very susceptible, when it can be reached, to poison. In Manhattan the most common varieties of roach are the American (an inch and a half long) and the German (half as large) ; the German is locally known as the "Croton bug" because it first invaded the city in large numbers when holes were cut in walls for water pipes...
When the Government closed all theaters, Tokyo newspapers complained: "The hard-working population cannot live on patriotic speeches and moral sermons alone." Thereupon the Government reneged. But Japs who had flocked to comedies a year ago were numb now. The theaters drew no crowds. The people were too tired, the trolleys too jammed...