Word: polks
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...that were not of gem quality. In August 1980, workers in a manganese mine in South Africa first discovered a vein of purple stone after a cave-in. They smuggled the stone out in their lunch pails, and from there samples were brought to the U.S. Phoenix Jeweler Randy Polk saw them, and traveled to South Africa. Polk went from house to house in the dusty interior town of Hotazel, negotiating with the miners to buy the stones. He now owns nearly 100 lbs., or half the estimated world supply...
Soon two anesthesiologists refused to assist Stanford because of the fatality rate. Says Anesthesiologist Tommy Polk: "If you do seven of them, and none come off the table-survive the operation-it becomes very depressing." Other complaints began reaching Myers. "Certainly serious doubts were raised in my mind," he admitted at the trial. But he seems to have done little about the situation. The defense argued that Stanford's high mortality rate reflected the fact that he took on the most serious cases, but one supporter acknowledged, "I wouldn't refer a member of my family...
...freely and often hilariously over centuries' worth of British biography and gossip. Historian Paul F. Boiler Jr. had to confine himself to the 39 Americans who, for better or worse, served among the acknowledged legislators of the world. Abraham Lincoln is here, but so, unavoidably, are James K. Polk, Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore...
Then there was the matter of pressing the flesh. Polk and William McKinley both developed extensive theories about the best way to shake many hands without pain or injury; Lyndon Johnson could extend a normal greeting into something like a mugging. Some Presidents failed handshaking. Benjamin Harrison's grip was likened to "a wilted petunia," while one newsman described Woodrow Wilson's as "a ten-cent pickled mackerel in brown paper...
...maybe Warren G. Harding) has approached the White House with the attitude of Pope Leo X: "God has given us the papacy. Let us now enjoy it." On the other hand, as Carter proved, modesty of life-style does not automatically capture the nation's heart: James K. Polk brought a Presbyterian rectitude to the White House (he and his wife Sarah banned dancing and drinking), but such stern virtue did absolutely nothing to elevate Polk in the opinion of history. Chester A. Arthur went in for luxe, the best of everything, with roughly the same result...