Word: toothlessness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Until the 20th century, the platypus was scientifically known as Paradoxus because it is such a baffling creature. It lays eggs, has a toothless bill and its feet are webbed. But it also has fur and a diaphragm, the females suckle their young, and the males have foreskins--all of which are characteristic of mammals. The platypus was discovered in Australian backwaters by westerners in 1797, long after aborigines had cultivated a spiritual respect for the creature. When the first specimens were shipped to England, scientists tried to pry off the bill, because they were convinced it was a graft...
...shouted one kid to another in the Santa Monica, Calif., surf. Even the lowly dogfish, the spaniel of the seas but a shark just the same, is suspected of homicidal intentions. "Kill it, kill it," urged a Long Island angler to his companion dangling a 2-ft.-long, almost toothless fish from his rod, "before it grows up to kill...
...functions of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, now a toothless body of distinguished citizens, should be expanded to include full oversight of the CIA. To do the job, the board should be given a full-time chairman and a full-time staff...
...WERE UP early the next morning and the road looked bad and slow. Finally a battered old tank slowed down--stalled to a standstill--and we were on our way, for at least a couple of hundred miles. Our driver was a squat, hairy toothless Canadian freak. He laughed like a leprechaun--in great volumes of uncontagious cackles--and he cursed his car at every knock. He wouldn't put it over 50 mph and the hard-iron hills of Nevada clanked by slowly. Huge white letters were carved into the hills--the only signs to tell one town from...
...hard to argue the point once Aggressor Clarke goes into action. With his long curly hair and toothless smile (his four front upper teeth have been knocked out), "Clarkie" out-hustles everyone on the ice, even though he is a diabetic. When teammates do not put out, he blasts them; when he makes a bad pass himself he jams his stick against the boards and curses. One measure of his play can be found in the assist column: Clarke has scored only 15 goals this season, but he has made 53 assists...