Word: took
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Eston took a quite different path. For 14 years he lived in Chillicothe, the 1850 Census listing him as mulatto. But by 1860 he and his wife, who was also part black, were living in Wisconsin, his name changed to E.H. Jefferson, the marking on the Census now white. The family would become successful members of the white middle class, winding up on social registries. For descendants like Julia Jefferson Westerinen, 64, of New York City, there would be no idea of the family legacy. For her a brush with blackness was befriending the maid or disciplining her daughter Dorothy...
None of this, of course, is entirely new. Advertising, like kudzu, has always existed opportunistically, moving unchecked through the cultural biomass until it finds a niche, then setting down roots. It long ago took hold on such improbable places as the fenders of racing cars and the insides of matchbook covers. The fact that logos and promotions now bloom on the uniforms of professional athletes, in the blinking screens of Internet data and even on the skin of the sad banana ought to be no surprise...
...comes as a surprise that last week Ornstein and nine other serious people took the stage at the Improv on Connecticut Avenue to vie for the title of Washington's Funniest Celebrity. Obviously the fact that it was all for a good cause, to benefit the Child Welfare League of America, gave the would-be comics flop insurance, but none of these people came to have their efforts patronized. They were in it for the glory...
...part of the American Cancer Society's 22nd annual Great American Smokeout. One in 4 smokers is expected at least to try kicking the habit. Nobody says it will be easy. A national survey made public last week by the Hazelden Foundation of Center City, Minn., found that it took former smokers, on average, at least 10 attempts over 18 years before they finally stopped for good. The No. 1 reason for quitting, cited by more than half of all ex-smokers: health concerns or an actual health problem, like suffering a heart attack. Six out of 10 quit...
...final pieces in the collection are about the mad scramble of the Americans to leave Saigon in April 1975. Keyes Beech of the Chicago Daily News was one of the last reporters out, leaving aboard a helicopter that took off from the roof of the American embassy as thousands of fearful South Vietnamese begged to be taken out of their country. Beech clawed his way through that crowd and, as Vietnamese clung to his limbs, was finally pulled over the embassy wall by a U.S. Marine. "My last view of Saigon," he wrote, "was through the tail door...