Word: sat
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...always so well ordered. In the last century filibusters were frequent, and minorities refused to vote, making action impossible for want of a quorum. Speaker Thomas Reed changed all that one wild day in 1890 by counting members present, although they sat mutely in their chairs when their names were called. Shouted a Kentuckian named McCreary, "I deny the right of the Speaker to count me present." "Czar" Reed shot back with devastating logic, "The Chair simply stated the fact that the gentleman from Kentucky appears to be present. Does he deny it?" With that, members bolted for the doors...
...Britain to be small and weak and to count for little," cried Lord Beaverbrook's Daily Express. Last week in the House of Commons, Sir Winston Churchill, who in 1942 defiantly declared that he had not become Prime Minister "to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire," sat glum and with bowed head as his government announced that Britain was withdrawing its troops from Egypt...
Socialists, who had suffered under Churchill's taunts of "Scuttle" when they advocated withdrawal from Suez in 1946, thoroughly enjoyed Churchill's discomfiture, greeted him with sardonic cries of "No scuttling." Below the gangway sat 40 grim-faced Tories, the "Suez rebels" sworn to vote against the government rather than accept withdrawal. The first question Opposition Leader Clement Attlee asked was barbed: "In view of the statements which were made by the present Prime Minister on the absolute necessity of having troops in Egypt for the defense of the Suez canal . . . may I ask whether this agreement...
...vote neared, the House was tense. If the Socialists decided to vote against the government (and their own convictions), the 40 Suez rebels could bring the government down. But at the cry of "Clear the lobbies," all but six Socialists sat stolidly in place, and not even all the rebels kept their resolve. By a vote of 257 to 26 (Socialists abstaining), Britain agreed to quit Egypt before it was pushed...
...annual meeting with the traditional peyote ceremony. Into a large, canvas-covered tepee near the home of Howard Poweshiek, leader of the church on the reservation in Iowa, the Indians stepped quietly in single file. It was sundown. Dressed mostly in jeans or slacks and open shirts, the men sat cross-legged on the bare earth, facing a fire. Each helped himself to the peyote buttons that were passed around, and from time to time someone lit up a ceremonial cigarette (Bull Durham tobacco and corn husks). Until 7:30 the next morning, the big tepee was filled with prayers...