A history of cancer and heart disease, probably. Of course what she hoped was that his side of the family was fabulously wealthy. She'd spent her entire life fantasizing about him coming back into their lives somehow to give them bankfuls of cash.

Sanders Lansing was celebrated for her dead cakes, bearing the monogram of the dead.

Above the chimney were sundry villainous old guns, and a couple of horse-pistols: and, by way of ornament, three gaudily-painted cainsters disposed along its ledge.

Equipment back then was less capable than it is today, and we often had to deal with mechanical failures, also called mechanicals and the odd injury which we called 'bio-mechanicals'.