Word: sniff
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...head-to-foot "space suits" -- required by federal regulations governing airborne use of potentially toxic substances -- sprayed 2,400 strawberry plants with a slightly different strain of the same ice- inhibiting bacterium. The event drew a crowd of reporters and government officials, who arrived with elaborate devices to sniff the air and taste the dirt around the test site. The start of the experiment was delayed for an hour because of an act of sabotage: the night before, vandals, apparently expressing their disapproval of the experiment, cut through a chain-link fence and uprooted some 2,000 plants...
Above all Boesky made research about takeovers his obsession. From his lavishly appointed Midtown Manhattan offices the lean marauder directed batteries of lawyers and financial detectives to sniff out possible outcomes and hurdles in takeover deals. Usually standing rather than sitting at his desk, he worked 18-hour days behind a 300-line telephone bank. He cultivated the image of a man who lived and breathed only for stock deals, sleeping little, hardly seeming to eat, and apparently subsisting largely on gallons of black coffee...
...this year's income tax deadline loomed, accountants were getting much more than their historic share of publicity, and a lot of it was bad. After a spectacular string of corporate failures and financial scandals in recent years, the industry that is supposed to audit company books and sniff out chicanery is under pressure from all directions...
THINKING UP WAYS of dodging the speed limit has always been one of those things that spice up a long drive through the boondocks. Keeping one eye on the highway and the other a half-mile up the road to sniff out a speed trap; perfecting the technique of hitting the brakes--but not too hard--when you see Smokey zap you with his radar gun; offering a revolutionary excuse to the trooper as he asks for your license and registration--these are all classic features of intercity travel in America...
Herds of country cognoscenti await McManus' appearance in magazines and books (Never Sniff a Gift Fish, 1983). The 30 pieces assembled here run a bucolic gamut of outdoor misadventures. The author recalls his encounter with an inept wilderness guide: "Once he got us so lost I resorted to firing three shots in rapid succession. But the light was bad and I missed him." At other times McManus offers addled expertise. He tells new husbands how to build up a gun collection without attracting the attention of their wives. Hint: get the little woman to stop counting rifles and start thinking...