Word: peare
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Died. Thomas ("Tom") Pettitt, 86, British-born, mustachioed grand old man of court tennis; in Newport, R. I. A onetime locker-boy for the first U.S. court-tennis court (in Boston), he taught himself the ancient, highly specialized game (played in large, complicated, enclosed courts, with pear-shaped racquets and complex rules), revolutionized classic court style with his smashing drives ("When I get a fair sight of the ball, I hit it, and I hit it damned hard"). Tom Pettitt made both court-tennis history and legend, in his heyday was reputed to have defeated many an opponent while using...
William Wesley Pear...
...aristocrats can be manufactured; it whacks away at middle-class morality, which would forbid all pleasure to the poor. But the satire in Pygmalion has worn less well than the comedy. Much the funniest scene in the play is Eliza's first appearance in society: with the purest, pear-shaped tones and impeccable enunciation, she recounts the horrendous yarn of how her gin-swilling aunt was "done...
...that was just the beginning. On D-day Walton went in with the paratroopers long before dawn, flung himself out of the plane door at such low altitude that "there was only a moment to look around in the moonlight as my chute opened. I landed in a pear tree, which was a good shock absorber, but I didn't filter through to the ground; instead I dangled helplessly about three feet above ground, a perfect target for the snipers I could hear not far away...
Walton was finally rescued from the pear tree, but for the next three days he was under constant fire-never had his boots off, got only three hours sleep in 72. Once he had to plunge through a swamp, wade away from the enemy with machine-gun bullets pinging all around him. But all during those hours he somehow managed to hang on to his typewriter...