1 In New York, young Tate attended the Horace Mann School. By the time he was in high school, he exhibited a fondness for science. He used to experiment at home with a small chemistry set, and he created one or two small explosions in the house. His high school yearbook had a rhyme for each member of the graduating class, and the one for Tate was "terribly taciturn Tate, with HC1 on his pate." John Torrence Tate, Biographical Memoirs Volume 47. National Academy Press., p. 462. 2 In his younger years, the Zucker and Franklin (then Freudlich) families lived across from each other in Berlin, but their paths parted upon emigration from Germany, with the Zuckers secreted away in the Netherlands throughout World War II. By extraordinary coincidence the parents met again while on vacation in Lake Placid in 1952 and discovered that they again lived virtually across from each other in Forest Hills, New York. Ed and Dotty's reacquaintance in New York was in the context of a blind date, which she remembers as "a bore." Nevertheless, a relationship developed, although Dorthea's friends were puzzled at her attraction to this taciturn individual, who was such a wall-flower at parties. The mutual attachment blossomed and matured into a very close and lively marriage. Indeed, they had to arrange separate offices for themselves in their home because when together their constant conversation prevented them from getting their work accomplished. Edward C. Franklin, Biographical Memoirs Volume 78. National Academy Press., p. 56-57. 3 In those early years, I – who was very young, along with many others who were not – found myself awed and tongue-tied in his presence. This reticence in turn affected George, who, misunderstanding it, acted withdrawn and taciturn, confirming our expectations. I felt he deemed us not quite up to his advanced level of reason and knowledge – a fact that was certainly true but was not, I believe, a correct assessment of his reactions. Looking back this now seems very mixed, but it certainly seemed real at the time and continued to affect George's relations with others for years to come. George Gaylord Simpson, Biographical Memoirs Volume 60. National Academy Press., p. 332- 333. 4 After describing the tangled economic, cultural, and family ties binding dealers and lobstermen, Ron Formisano, a University of Florida history professor, supplies a play-by-play analysis of the often hilarious trial, in which sly, taciturn lobstermen blithely [cheerfully and without care] flummoxed [confused] four furiously dedicated Federal prosecutors – one of whom couldn't stand the sight of a lobster. Though a jury of equally taciturn Maine landlubbers convicted Dyer and the associates of the Government refused to set punishment, choosing instead to extract its pound of fish [a play on words from a famous line in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice] from the dealers. Ken, B. (1997). Books in Brief: Nonfiction – The Great Lobster War. The Atlantic Monthly, July 13, 1997. 5 It had been a long, hot January day, but at last I was in sight of the remote tropical Fijian islet I'd been longing for. Beyond the long hilly island of Moturiki, two stretches of coral sand, each a quarter of a mile long, barely rose from above the waves, festooned [decorated] with coconut palms and mangroves [a kind of tree]. The closer one was our destination; Jim, our taciturn pilot, guided the small open boat into the shallows and helped us off. Fainberg, D. (2002). An ill wind in paradise. The Atlantic Monthly, March 3, 2002. 6 In Japanese cult director Takeshi Kitano's strange and beautiful new film, Fireworks, the director plays Yoshitaka Nishi, a taciturn former police officer who, when he's not calmly whacking [killing] the mobsters responsible for wounding his partner, cheerfully devotes himself to his terminally ill wife, Miyuki, in her last days. Taylor, E. (1998). Film: Flowers and Gunfire. The Atlantic Monthly, April, 1998. 7 In Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, a first feature film from actress Joan Chen (The Last Emperor, Heaven and Earth), a tailor's young daughter growing up in the last days of Mao's Cultural Revolution is abruptly [suddenly] "sent down" to the countryside in 1975 to learn horse-herding, with the promise that when she returns she will lead her own all-girl horse cavalry unit. Little does she know that the Revolution is on its last legs and the unit has long since been disbanded [broken up]. Billeted [housed] in a ragged tent with a taciturn Tibetan herder, the naοve [innocent] Xiu Xiu pines [longs] for home, indifferent [not showing care] both to her lovely natural surroundings and to the quiet integrity of her host […]. Taylor, E. (1998). Film: A Lost Generation. The Atlantic Monthly, May, 1999. 8 Cub SS Porter Creach – batting .323 and slugging .523 with 23 home runs, 23 steals, and 23 doubles in 423 at bat over his last 123 games – recently turned twenty-four. "Kind of ironic, isn't it?" said the taciturn Creach. "Well, that's baseball." Blount, R. Jr. (1997). Diamond nuggets. The Atlantic Monthly, August, 1997. 9 Newsweek's story [concerning the debate about drilling for oil in Alaska's National Wildlife refuge] has the same thrust, but a different approach. It opens with a taciturn Alaskan pilot, "a former rodeo rider and crop duster," who flies the magazine's reporter to his destination. "Nobody would mistake Dirk Nickisch for a tree hugger," writes Jeffrey Bartholet. "But as he takes off and flies over the northern mountains of Alaska into one of the last unspoiled wilderness areas of America, he explains (if you ask him) why he doesn't want multinational oil companies to explore and drill for oil in any part of the refuge." Powers, W. (2001). The Arctic persuasion. The Atlantic Monthly, August 15, 2001. 10 Mr. Higgin's acidic novel [Bomber's Law] opens with two plainclothes policemen sitting in a car waiting for a suspect to appear. They are a grouchy veteran and the younger colleague to whom he is turning over the investigation, and they hate each other for reasons of origin, education, connections, temperament, and previous association. Most of these reasons emerge in their garrulous [wordy], raspy conversation. No Higgins character has ever been taciturn. Adams, P.L. (1993). Brief Reviews: Bomber's Law by George V. Higgins. The Atlantic Monthly, December, 1993. 11 Which brings us to money. For the first week or two I was hit surprisingly hard by the realization that I was the poorest nonjanitorial worker in my building. (I was there as a temporary consultant; only long-term [Microsoft] employees are eligible for stock options.) At some point I stopped thinking about it and tried to observe the way everyone else thought about money. They talked about its consequences quite a lot. Standard lunch-table chat would concern the new boat or sports car someone had bought. And when Microsoft stock was moving up or down, there was a fair amount of hallway chatter about it. But on the fundamental questions – how much do you have? How much do you need? – People were taciturn. Everyone recognized the concept of having "enough" money to quit and do something else, as a large number of Microsoft veterans have done. But almost no one would specify how much would be enough. Inside the Leviathan, Part Two. The Atlantic Monthly, February 2000. 12 Inside the farmhouse, the family greetings were casual and restrained. His parents and his brothers and in-laws did not seem overly impressed by the prospect that the eldest son would soon occupy one of the most powerful positions of government. […] As sometimes happens in those families, however, the energy and ambition seemed to have been concentrated disproportionately [unevenly] in one child, David, perhaps at the expense of others. His mother, Carol, a big- boned woman with metallic blond hair, was the one who made David work for A's in school. In political debate, David Stockman was capable of dazzling opponents with words; his brothers seemed shy and taciturn in his presence. Greider, W. (1981) . The Atlantic Monthly, December 1981. "Vedosarn" Passages CVA Think-Aloud Protocols