Word: planking
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Seconds after pushing off downhill at Breckenridge, Colo., Peter Symms, 23, was out of control. Gaining speed, he torpedoed down a crowded ski slope, squatting sideways on a single plank of laminated wood that resembled a stubby ski. His body shimmied while he extended his arms like outriggers, hands flailing. "I'm going down again!" yelled the weekend warrior. He promptly crashed face down in the white powder. Nearby, a heavyset Texan leaned on his ski poles and watched intently: "Now what in the hell is that...
...criminals it was the other way around. They spoke rudely to them, but they treated them gently." Because of his defiance, Begun was often sent to the punishment cells, where conditions were even worse. "There is nothing in the cell except a toilet or a bucket. There is a plank for a bed, but no pad and no blanket, and it must be folded up against the wall in the daytime. There is a half-ration of food every other day." The cells were bitterly cold in winter. Begun estimated that he spent 200 days in punishment cells. "They punished...
Option A: Walk the plank...
Even former newsmen tend to hold onto these reassuring beliefs, as they might to an old teddy bear. It is this relunctance to put aside childish things that causes the poor fellows now and then to walk the plank for no good reason, instead of lying...
...subcategory of journalese involves the language used to indicate a powerful or celebrated person who is about to selfdestruct or walk the plank. Anyone referred to as an "American institution," for example, is in trouble. In politics, two or more stories in the same week referring to a power person as clever or, worse, brilliant indicate that the end is near. Soon Mr. Brilliant will be labeled a "loose cannon" and transmute himself into an adviser, the Washington version of self-imposed exile. In business journalism, the phrase "one of the most respected managers in his field" informs knowing readers...