Word: showdown
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...night a howling mob of 1,000 whites, inflamed by a self-appointed foe of integration from Washington, D.C. named John Kasper, banged and battered the cars of Negroes passing through, blocked traffic, swamped and demoralized the local police. Next night the showdown came. Forty citizens of Clinton were sworn in to help the eight Clinton cops in a vigilante "peace guard." They armed themselves with "everything we can get our hooks on," and formed a skirmish line before the mob in the courthouse square. "Lock them up if they give you any lip," ordered the submachine gun-toting commander...
...null null Purchasing Director Bernard Green guarding the door against newsmen, the executive council members entered the conference room, settled themselves around a U-shaped table (its light blue cloth elegantly flecked with silverish fleur-de-lis) to hear genial Host Dave Dubinsky bring the major issue to a showdown. Said Dubinsky: "Let's decide whether we are going to endorse anyone...
...Brazil's mineral resources ("The oil is ours!"). Months ago this alliance of extremes, which stunts the country's economic growth by barring foreign capital from oil exploitation, began denouncing exports of radioactive material to the U.S. (thorium oxide and thorium-bearing monazite sand, no uranium). The showdown came last week, when the Security Council, loaded with nationalistic armed forces brass, adopted a military-dominated commission's recommendations that Brazil suspend exports of radioactive minerals and end the joint-exploration treaty with the U.S. President Kubitschek meekly gave the nationalistic generals their way. Still in effect...
Even while Stevenson's lines were being repaired, other lightning rods were functioning. The Platform Committee, headed by Massachusetts' Congressman John McCormack, an old hand at managing political compromises, steered carefully clear of showdown situations. McCormack appointed a Civil Rights Subcommittee composed mostly of moderates on both sides. And he got some unexpected help in his work from Harry Truman, who told the committee that he thought the 1948 and 1952 civil-rights planks were just about right...
...gunslinging. Next day Glenn offers up his weapon on the church altar, explaining that he must skip town because "trouble collects around a fast gun." Too late. Enter bellicose Brod, hankering to drill Glenn. As the congregation sings Holy, Holy, Holy, Glenn dutifully straps on his holster for the showdown. As Miss Crain mumbles after the fireworks, "I guess that takes care of everything...