Word: thumbs
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...Greasy Thumb was a card-a short (5 ft. 2 in.), shabby-looking, aging (63) gaffer with dark glasses and a straggle of white hair, who ambled into the crowded room like some ancient and anxious raccoon being ushered into a kennelful of police dogs. He sat on the edge of his chair, feet dangling, conceded that he was Jacob Guzik, and then announced that he would refuse to "answer any questions whatever on the grounds of incrimination...
...refused to give his age. He refused to talk about his income. Greasy Thumb clammed up. Once, peering over his shoulder at the throngs who were eying him, he muttered in protest: "For Christ sake!" Would he talk about anything at all? He wouldn't answer that, either. "It may incriminate me." Where did he get this phrase about incrimination he was using all the time? Said Greasy Thumb with dignity: "I heard it on the television...
...just one question?" he said, with a mortician's delicacy of tone. "I don't want to pursue it. This is as to Mr. Ragen [a Chicago race-wire owner who, according to the committee, was murdered just before Greasy Thumb & Co. took over his service]. Would you answer whether you knew Mr. James Ragen?" Said Greasy Thumb hopefully: "If I answer that question, would you stop...
...Greasy Thumb finally said he did know Ragen, but did not know who killed him. Then he got lockjaw again, and was duly taken away, under arrest for contempt of Congress...
Medical-school students are taught that a woman is ready to give birth when the cervix has dilated to ten centimeters, and should be moved to the delivery room when dilation has reached nine centimeters. Some shiny new interns at Lying-in, depending on this rule-of-thumb, have had arguments with Nurse Carmon over the proper time to move a mother. In every case that Lying-in can remember, Carmon was right. Said one chastened doctor: "If my patient had dilated to only two centimeters and Carmon said she ought to go to delivery, I'd take...