Word: plunger
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...both lubricant and fire preventive. In the hot shaft it sounds, and feels, like a tropical rain forest. Shiny with sweat, Burns and Aberle leave the cage and head down another tunnel toward their blasting box. "Cover your ears!" Burns yells. Counting ten under his breath, he pushes the plunger. "Fire!" The explosion is less a noise than a huge impact. The force of more than half a ton of explosive rattles the bones. There is a short, odd silence, followed by a series of low, menacing rumbles. That means the charges have done their work. Aftershocks have shaken loose...
...Japanese blacktail bantam named Kung Flewk -receives a cash prize of $500. What makes it fun is the unpredictability of the chickens. Some fly straight and true, or reasonably so, like Kung Flewk. Some refuse to fly at all, even with encouragement from a plunger. Some shift into reverse on takeoff. Since chickens are not natural aviators at the best of times, in a brisk breeze they can be pitiful to behold...
...deny that the incident ever occurred. Do not let her fool you. After her accident, the proctors issued a memo to all Yard freshmen. The memo did not say "Do not sit on fire-escapes--; rather, it entreatied the Yard freshmen not to fall off the fire-escapes. The plunger ought to be proud, not ashamed, as she has instituted a major change in the University's housing policy...
...recently had one cancerous breast removed. Only too conscious that her breasts were the chief attraction she exerted on her husband, she is sinking into a state of garrulous alcoholic despondency. She swigs continuously from a bottle, and her only other visible activity is carrying a plunger to a stopped-up toilet. That facility is overemployed, since Mert's senile mother-in-law, also a tippler, is incontinent. The old lady has been fitted out with roller skates so that she can make her all-too-necessary trips at top speed...
...sighting marks were daubed on a wall across the street so the terrorists would know when to trigger the explosives. There were two assassins. One peered through the window and gave directions through a walkie-talkie; at his command, the other pressed the plunger. The identity of these men has not been announced by the police-and is presumably still unknown...