Word: lures
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...year-old brain is a tight-packed file of some 50,000 jokes and japes. With never-miss efficiency, Berle can dip into these mental files, yank out just the gag he wants when he wants it. The "Thief of Badgags" (as spiteful rivals call him), who has probably lured more people into nightclubs than any performer alive, is now making his sixth attempt in 18 years to lure listeners to their radios with a Berle show...
...Europe they will find things somewhat better. But not enough to pay for the trouble of going all the way around the world. What is the lure? One prewar tripper put it this way: "First, the fun of spending money. . . . Then there is the incontrovertible fact, proved by postcards, snapshots, movie reels and the labels on their baggage, that [the globe-girdlers] have actually circumnavigated the globe. . . . Then they get four months of bridge, of comparing notes, prices and scandal with new friends delightfully like themselves, a lot of good ozone, offset by more or less continuous indigestion from rich...
...alluring smell is the musk deer's undoing. For centuries, through the rhododendrons in the cool Himalayan foothills where he lives, the male musk deer has been relentlessly chased by hunters. Unfortunately for him, the musk deer has a scent gland that contains a sex lure. In its pure form, musk is worth $40,000 a pound to perfume manufacturers...
...Ancient Lure. The musk deer's scent gland, according to Charles Darwin, is the product of an evolutionary runaround. Millions of years ago, the male, deer that smelled the nicest attracted the most females-and thus left the most descendants. A weakly scented male got nowhere as a progenitor...
Modern Hunt. Since the supply of musk has never met the demand, perfumers have always looked for substitutes. They discovered that many animals have musky-smelling lure glands. Beaver glands yield castor, which is widely used. So is loud-smelling civet. Perfume chemists once eyed skunks, encouraged by the fact that many people do not mind a distant skunk smell on a frosty morning. But the perfumers finally gave up on skunks: their scent is basically a defensive weapon rather than a sex lure. Muskrat glands, a cheap by-product of the fur trade, did work. The muskrat substance...