Word: scantiest
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...great empires, the Mongols left the scantiest legacy. The Greeks gave us literature and philosophy, the Romans architecture and law, the British railroads and cricket. The Mongols, true to their nomadic temperament, built nothing and walked away as if their empire were a mere winter camp. They are history's ultimate one-hit wonders. But as Stewart discovers, they have taken this eclipse well. Mongolians can be a barrel of laughs, especially at weddings, which devolve into violently fun drinking sessions in which "giving your new in-laws a good thumping" is expected. The author, perhaps influenced by the omnipresent...
...draped coffin moved across the old capital, drawn by naval ratings, and bareheaded Londoners stood trembling in the cold, they mourned not only him and all he had meant, but all they had been, and no longer were, and would never be again." Most likely, Manchester had only the scantiest notion where that sentence would wind up when he began it. Once he caught up with it, he got it, but then there was another sentence running on ahead. Until recently, there was always another sentence...