Word: omened
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...lunar new year and, in accordance with age-old custom, peasant folk were cracking open the hard little Korean walnuts to foretell the future. No matter that Korea lay devastated by war, there was still a future. If the kernels came out whole, that was a good omen. On the other hand, if they came out broken, that was bad, but not hopeless...
...Paris pavements were icy that day, and bulky, baggy-eyed Rene Mayer, on his way to the National Assembly to plead support for a new government of France, slipped and staggered. Said he: "In my place, an ancient Roman would take it as an ill omen and go home. But modern courtesy forbids it. I believe they are waiting for me in this House." They were, but there too the ground was slippery...
...good omen in Mayer's achievement was the breaking down of the blank and sterile opposition of the Gaullists to all participation in government. But there were still no Gaullists in the cabinet. By threatening to withdraw their voting support at any time they plainly hoped to extract further concessions from Mayer. Looking over the new government, a Frenchman cracked: "It is Pinay without Pinay and De Gaulle without De Gaulle...
...which she dances in an intricate trio for about five minutes, suddenly breaks off (at home in Bali, this part of the dance might last an hour), trots offstage like any twelve-year-old, and returns with a pair of golden wings to portray the Bird of Evil Omen...
...party in the Kremlin's underground shelters early in 1942, says Nephew Svanidze, Stalin was told that Lenin's body, since its removal, was deteriorating rapidly. Stalin expressed fears that if Lenin's body became completely decomposed the Russian people might take it as a bad omen: "If we find it is impossible to preserve the body, we'll have to replace it by an artificial figure. It must be perfectly done." Says Svanidze: "I learned afterward that the body of Lenin had been replaced by a substitute made at Kazan," and the decomposing body secretly...