Word: ramrodded
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...life alongside his wife, or as he would say with precision, 'a pace behind her, old chap, a pace behind her.' He is mainly visible as the gracious host while his wife conducts affairs of state. At 74, he seems eminently fit for the job: the back is still ramrod straight, the step springy, the mind clear as a bell. What keeps him in such excellent fettle? 'Cigarettes and gin,' chuckles Denis. His almost flawless public performance is all the more admirable for hiding his true nature: short-fused, outspoken, archconservative ... When he is not busy escorting his wife...
...procession across Kirkland Street and into the packed theater. Led by the honor guards of five departments accompanied by the Boston Police Gaelic pipes and drums, the 51 graduates of the 10th Municipal Police Officers Class (MPOC) marched in a crisp military formation, executing crisp turns with their backs ramrod straight and their white-gloved hands moving in rhythmic synchrony...
When Spitzer meets in his office to discuss big cases like these, he sits at the head of the table, ramrod stiff. His feet don't tap; his fingers don't twitch. The scene is like trick photography. Everyone else is in motion--shifting, wiggling, scratching--while Spitzer is still. But when he needs to, he can crank up the passion. When he felt negotiations with the 12 banks had dragged on too long, he decided to play tough. He instructed the top lawyers of five of the major banks to come to his office. When they arrived...
Midway through a monotone recitation of his accomplishments to Hispanic conventioneers in Los Angeles last Friday, Governor Gray Davis, his blue suit perfectly pressed, stood ramrod straight on the podium and made an admission that came as no surprise. "My wife has all the charisma," Davis said. "I have zero." That same day his Republican opponent, Bill Simon Jr., was in Salinas, also courting Hispanic voters. Simon's message fell flat for a different reason. His campaign was reeling after Thomas Davis III, who heads the Republican party's Congressional Campaign Committee, called Simon's effort the "single worst...
...seems a long time ago now," says General Lue Ye-tien, Tuan's former right-hand man. Tuan died in 1980 but Lue still cuts a sprightly figure at 85 and relishes the peace of his twilight years after a lifetime of fighting. A towering chap with a ramrod back and a vaguely wintery air, he retains a formidable presence even as he potters about the twisting rows of tea bushes swaddling the slopes below his Chinese-style villa. Further down, the mountain falls away in an undulating patchwork of tea, tobacco, fruit trees and stands of thick forest. Above...