Word: aback
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...Taken aback, Judge Sullivan postponed sentencing the defendants, ordered a thoroughgoing psychiatric examination for Oscar Hartzell. "Your Honor," pleaded exhausted Defense Counsel Edward J. Hess, "if Hartzell is nutty, so are all the rest of them...
...court of public opinion. ... I said that they had admitted their failure and had abdicated. . "Abdicated? Yes, in 1933, but now with the passing of danger they forget their damaging admissions and withdraw their abdication. [So excited were Democratic Congressmen that they cheered here, too, by mistake. Taken aback, the President lost his place, started to skip a sentence] "They offer. . . . They offer. . . . They seek-let me put it that way," he interjected, covering up his slip. "They seek the restoration of their selfish power. They offer to lead us back round the same old corner into the same...
Representatives of the New York City Board, taken aback, groused that Rose had taken four years to find the right diet, that it was now too late. And anyway, could she keep her new figure? Yes, said her attorney. "She is down to normal and she'll stay there." The Commissioner, interested, reserved decision...
...hear a gasoline engine sputtering in the backyard of his neighbor, Henry Ford. Hesitantly Lawyer Rackham mortgaged his property, invested $5,000 in the new Ford Motor Co. In 1919, after receiving $4,000,000 in dividends, he sold out to Henry & Edsel Ford for $12,500,000. Taken aback by his fortune, Lawyer Rackham did his best to ignore it, living modestly, carrying on his practice, shunning publicity. His philanthropic career almost ended in a fit of hysteria when the Detroit Community Fund revealed him as the donor of $20,000. Later, in strictest secrecy, he financed archeological expeditions...
...Unable to reach Nome before dark, the Lindberghs landed in a far lagoon on Seward Peninsula, anchored the plane, and slept. In the middle of the night they were awakened by guttural voices, discovered two boatloads of Eskimos beside the plane. "Hello," said the Eskimos, "we-hunt-duck." Taken aback, not knowing what manner of men his visitors were, Charles Lindbergh replied, "That's nice." Conversation lagged. To keep it going, he explained that he and his wife were just stopping for the night. The Eskimos did not understand. Still trying to make conversation, he asked, "Get many ducks...