Kurt Vonnegut's "The Barnhouse Effect"
1. At no time were his experiments, as Premier Slezak called them, "a bourgeois (characterized by materialistic pursuits or concerns) plot to shackle the true democracies of the world."
2. "Did you give it everything you had?" asked the general dubiously (in a doubtful manner).
3. Many a stouthearted patriot has found himself prone (lying face down) in the tangled bunting and timbers of a smashed reviewing stand.
4. Save for one short, enigmatic (mysterious) message left in my mailbox on Christmas Eve, I have not heard from him since his disappearance a year and a half ago.
