Word: pest
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Marine" when he starred briefly on a TV quiz show during the '50s. Pepler's problem: he was dumped from the show when he wouldn't take a dive. He now wants Zuckerman to help publish his book about the scandal. In addition to this pathetic pest, there is a blackmailer who grows indignant when Nathan refuses to pay $50,000 to prevent the kidnaping of his mother: "Don't get high and mighty with me," says the caller. "Because if it was my mother, let me tell you, there wouldn't be that much...
...Soviets claim he was caught with a woman in his Rovno hotel room.) Nor is there any firm consensus about Soviet motives In attempting to compromise Holbrook, or pretending to attempt to compromise him. The leading theory among U.S. officials is that the Soviets considered Holbrook an especially acute pest: he speaks perfect Russian and had made many friends among the Soviet military. The Soviets regard the dozen or so U.S. military attaches in Moscow as little more than spies anyway. Indeed, Holbrook and his unfortunate fellow tripper-Lieut. Colonel Thomas Spencer, still among the American officers who work...
Animator Walter Lantz and his bride Gracie did not get much sleep on their 1941 honeymoon. Explains Walter, now 80: "It was this darned woodpecker. He made a terrible racket and ruined the roof of our cottage." Unable to silence the pest, Lantz made him immortal-by introducing the creature into one of his Andy Panda cartoons. "Universal Studios told me I ought to have my head examined," he recalls. "They said he's noisy, raucous, obnoxious; he'll never go." They were right, except on that last point. Now in his 40th year, Woody Woodpecker remains...
...affably acerbic Klein is also a veteran of Chicago's much esteemed comedy training ground, Second City, where he worked with the likes of Fred Willard and David Steinberg. "David was mean. Inconsiderate. A pest and a twirp." (Klein seems to be reveling in the sheer delight of his venom, more than really meaning what he says...
...There will also be other environmental nightmares. As man invades their wild habitats and pollutants rain down on them, 500,000 to 2 million species of plants and animals may die off in the next two decades. Rare plants needed to create new blight-and pest-resistant hybrids will vanish. Paradoxically, some environmental problems may be the consequence of the best of intentions. As farmers try to squeeze more food out of their fields by irrigation, the soil's salinity will increase, thus impairing its ability to sustain crops. Less predictable, but no less frightening: a possible global heating...