She wanted to be near him for his quiet ways, his interesting lunches of cold pap and gravy, which he ate with his fingers and his unroaming eyes.

Her dress is wool too, brown and black houndsteeth that belonged to her mother.

The striking positional variants … of Virginia are probably an American innovation, since this feature is not found in Standard British English or the folk speech of the Midland and the south of England, though northern England and Scotland have it to some extent. […] It is worth noting that only two instances of the pronunciation /jɛst/, riming with guest, have been recorded in the New England settlement area (one near Boston, the other near Buffalo), a pronunciation widely used in the English Midland along with /jɪst/, riming with fist. These are the normal derivatives of OE gist, gest...

I began as a patrol officer, working the wagon, squad car, and three-wheelers until 1963, when I took the detective exam.