Word: pester
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Pessimists who fear that science is exhausting nature's mysteries can take fresh hope from a newly published book: The Natural History of Mosquitoes, by Dr. Marston Bates (Macmillan; $5). Mosquitoes punch holes in man; they pester him, keep him awake, infect him with deadly diseases. So well-financed scientists, determined to deal with mosquitoes, have studied them intensively for more than half a century, accumulating a vast amount of information. But, as Dr. Bates points out, they have hardly begun to find out how even the best-known species go about their business...
...that the duties of "unofficial hostess" to the President are heavy. "I have to know exactly what's on his mind and what he thinks of people all the time," she explains. "I know, too. I don't have to call him and ask." Then, too, people pester her. "They all know I can get to the White House any time I need to. Lots of them try to pump me to find out who's going to be fired and who's going to get hired." She winked. "I just act dumb." At a fashion...
Moaned Impresario Gaona from a hospital bed: "The profession isn't safe any more. But at least now I understand better the points that pester my bullfighters, and I will be at the corrida next Sunday if I have to stand...
...rate men like Schindler can pull down $20,000 in purses in a May-October season, but 60% usually goes to a car owner. Cash, however, is not the chauffeurs' only reward: women of all ages go overboard for the midget sport. They keep scrapbooks, write fan letters, pester drivers for autographs, send them gifts of helmets, goggles, gloves. Once at Danbury, Conn., two elderly ladies bustled down from the grandstand, thumped crack Chauffeur Ted Tappett on the head with their handbags because he had beaten their favorite...
...Widow Tierney scares so spiritedly, and is so fond of the house, that the ex-seaman gets to liking her. He even shoos off the in-laws who come to pester her, and at length settles down to dictating his memoirs, which are as briny ashore as at sea. The captain's bawdy memoirs become a bestseller, and settle the widow's money troubles. More intimate troubles are less easily attended to, for it is no fun to fall in love with a ghost. She tries to face reality by taking up with a simpering masher (George Sanders...