Word: wisp
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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White smoke was still billowing Tom the makeshift Sistine Chapel chimney when Pericle Cardinal Felici stepped out on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. After the first wisp of smoke had appeared, signifying election of a new Pope, crowds streaming toward the historic square had snarled every street in Rome west of the Tiber River. Now more than 100,000 people waited expectantly below the balcony. "I announce to you a great joy," Felici intoned in sonorous Latin. "We have a Pope!" The crowd roared, then hushed to hear the name...
...next year he dropped out of the University of Cincinnati without completing his junior year; he saw no sense in remaining because the movement's founder, Charles Taze Russell, had announced Oct. 1, 1914, as the date for Christ's Second Coming. Franz recalls with a wisp of a smile: "We expected the end of this system of things, that God's kingdom would take over the earth and that we would be glorified in heaven...
Ireland's Prime Minister Liam Cosgrave, with his wisp of mustache, starched collar, bowler hat and understated manner, often looks like a Downstairs character asking a small favor of the man Upstairs. And indeed, until recently, the Irish were among the profligates of Europe, living it up as if someone else were responsible for their bills. Wages wildly outstripped productivity. Unemployment was the highest in Western Europe; inflation raged at an 18% rate. Public debt zoomed moonward at a catastrophic speed, while the idea of restricting consumption to narrow an enormous deficit elicited a knowing snigger. By calling...
...exception. Adrian and Louise got up around the usual hour, 11 o'clock or so. They chatted amiably and exchanged stories of their Saturday night adventures. They dressed and each looked themselves over in the mirror, Louise taking a little longer to comb out that last stray wisp of hair, and finally, pleased with the results, they were ready to leave. Weekend meals were proving to be more interesting for Louise than Adrian. They provided her with the opportunity to flirt with real men, not those cloddy freshmen who were always bumping into your chair in the Union with...
...poised on the balance beam-a 4-in. strip of spruce, 16½ ft. long, 4 ft. above the padded flooring. The palms of her hands are coated with gymnasts' chalk that is as white as her uniform, as white as her face. She is an infinitely solemn wisp of a girl, 4 ft. 11 in. tall, a mere 86 Ibs.; dark circles above her cheeks; a Kean-eyed elf. Then, with no more strain than it would take to raise a hand to a friend, she is airborne: a backflip, landing on the sliver of a bar with...