What makes it so painful to predict his future candidly is the fact that this Russian Byronizing tradition has an undercurrent of unconscious self-destructiveness, constantly oscillating between would-be folk hero and would-be martyr,[…]

Upon Amelia's return from the West Coast in October, George presented her with a punishing schedule of lectures and appointments to promote the new book and solidify her position as America's foremost woman aviator.

I defy any summer fallower to extirpate the cockle, clovers, wild mustard, and corn sallad, likewise horse-gould, &c.

They […] proposed that we should join them in a plan to drench the president next morning with freezing water. We consented greenly enough.