Word: outpost
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Iceland, a few generations ago, was hardly more than a storybook land ruled by the Danes-a seafarer's outpost cut adrift from the rest of civilization. Dandelions and buttercups grew on the turf roofs of cottages. Even hens' eggs tasted of fish. The people seemed dour, except when drunk on words or alcohol, and the only way that one could effectively insult a native was to call him a Dane...
...dedicated air of European innkeepers. People who patronize Elsie's are serious about eating and only the uncouth order hamburgers. They like Cossack hats, don't laugh very much, and are of an intellectual bent. They actually enjoy standing up to eat. For them Elsie's is a Bavarian outpost in Harvard Square...
Brandy at Sundown. A generation ago, it had seemed possible that the original pioneer settler, a Scot named Ferris, might have made an outpost of civilization in this ill-favored wilderness. He had cleared the bush, trained the natives in animal husbandry and domestic service, imported the piano, the chandelier, the stone lions at the stoep, wine glasses and even books. In the hands of Ferris' son, a potbellied boor named Archie, things fall apart-both literally and figuratively. The piano sinks through the termite-ridden floor, the chandelier is unlit, the glasses are broken, the cattle...
Time Lost and Time Remembered. "An outpost by the sea, Population 427. Twenty-seven bars, a defunct weighing machine, zinc-roofed cinema. Waves, weed. Potatoes on the uplands, drizzle on dry days. Decaying bachelors and young Helens with church medals pinned to their bodices, eyes down and kicking shins under dusty dining-room tables. We add, we subtract, we do the nine Fridays and the wind blows the seaweed onto the barbed wire...
Once the fun was discovered, no one could have enough. The next day the foam-making apparatus was driven over to the town dump near Springs, another artists' outpost, where the suds spewed forth once again so that all the children could have a good wallow. "The silliest thing I ever saw," exclaimed one horrified mother. But not all agreed. "A blast-out of sight. I wish it could happen every day," said one teenager. It probably won't. The tab for the three-day Happening, with the cost of filming, was nearly $30,000-a fairly inflationary...