The smell at first was more surprising than unpleasant.

Though the four boys and two girls, the youngest nineteen years of age, the oldest twenty-four, came from varying backgrounds and had different professional and personal interests, there was surprising agreement among them.

They learn to like these so well that it isn't surprising to hear that one boy tried the oats he was feeding his horse at chore time.

Anne said it wasn't surprising because Charles was antisocial, a lone wolf, and completely one-sided.

Being behind the technological curve was not entirely surprising ; the chipset used in the 400 and 800 was designed because they were aware the 2600 would be obsolete by the 1980 time frame.

What was surprising was the sudden entry into the market of new competition, whose machines quickly cut off the sales of the 2600.

It has been remarked that this development in the law was somewhat surprising at the time, as the relevant provisions in Table A ( as it was then ) seemed to contradict this approach rather than to endorse it.

Brotherly affection was likely at a minimum, but this was hardly surprising, considering that Domitian had barely seen Titus after the age of seven.

When Austria-Hungary and Germany formed an alliance in 1879, it was one of the more surprising alliances of its time.

This action was somewhat surprising, as Levi had not only attempted to purchase Ethan's release while he was in Halifax, but he had also traveled to New York while Ethan was on parole there, and furnished him with goods and money.

Xanadu was turned into a surprising hit Broadway Musical that opened on 10 July 2007 at the Helen Hayes Theatre to uniformly good reviews and received 4 Tony Award nominations.

Jacob Grimm noted that if, as Adam of Bremen states, Fosite's sacred island was Heligoland, that would make him an ideal candidate for a deity known to both Frisians and Scandinavians, but that it is surprising he is never mentioned by Saxo Grammaticus.

Even more surprising was Carías's public acceptance of defeat and his urging of his supporters to accept the new government.

The peaceful transition of power was surprising because the onset of the depression had led to the overthrow of governments elsewhere throughout Latin America, in nations with much stronger democratic traditions than those of Honduras.

The result of the game was surprising to many in the sports media as Joe Namath and Matt Snell led Jets to the Super Bowl victory, under head coach Weeb Ewbank, who won two NFL Championships with the Colts.

An exhaustive analysis of diaries, letters, and travelers ' journals from colonial times up to the Civil War, undertaken by Dena J. Epstein and detailed in her book Sinful Tunes and Spirituals, yielded a surprising number of references to slave music that was primarily percussive.

Maurice Jones-Drew, the Jaguars ' second round draft pick, was one of the more surprising rookies in the NFL.

In 1637 Werth was once more in the Rhine valley, destroying convoys, relieving besieged towns and surprising the enemy's camps.

The other, more surprising choice was Nevitta, Julian's trusted Frankish general.

A year ago it was bruited that the primary character in Erich Maria Remarque's new novel was based on the Marquis Alfonso De Portago, the Spanish nobleman who died driving in the Mille Miglia automobile race of 1957.

Alfons Maria Jakob ( 2 July 1884, Aschaffenburg / Bavaria – 17 October 1931, Hamburg ) was a German neurologist with important contributions on neuropathology.

Alfons Maria Jakob was the son of a shopkeeper.

It was a controversial design at the time for the bold forms of the undulating stone facade and wrought iron decoration of the balconies and windows, designed largely by Josep Maria Jujol, who also created some of the plaster ceilings.

As a literary game when Latin was the common property of the literate, Latin anagrams were prominent: two examples are the change of " Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum " ( Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord with you ) into " Virgo serena, pia, munda et immaculata " ( Serene virgin, pious, clean and spotless ), and the anagrammatic answer to Pilate's question, " Quid est veritas?

He was married twice, to Valide Sultan Mahfiruze Hatice Sultan, originally named Maria, a Greek, mother of Osman II, and to Valide Sultan Kadinefendi Kösem Sultan or Mahpeyker, originally named Anastasia, a Greek, mother of Murad IV and Ibrahim I.

Agnes Maria of Andechs-Merania ( died 1201 ), queen of France, was the daughter of Bertold IV ( died 1204 ), who was Count of Andechs, a castle and territory near Ammersee, Bavaria and from 1183 duke of Merania ( Istria ).

Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov was born on 10 March 1845 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the second son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and his wife Maria Alexandrovna ( Marie of Hesse ).

Even when this elder brother first displayed symptoms of delicate health, the notion that he might die young was never taken seriously, and he was betrothed to the Princess Maria Feodorovna ( Dagmar of Denmark ).

The mother of Alexios, Anna Dalassena, was to play a prominent role in this coup d ' état of 1081, along with the current empress, Maria of Alania.

Furthermore, to aid the conspiracy Maria had adopted Alexios as her son, though she was only five years older than he Maria was persuaded to do so on the advice of her own " Alans " and her eunuchs, who had been instigated to do his by Isaac Komnenos.

By secretly giving inside information to the Komnenoi, Maria was an invaluable ally.

During this time, Alexios was rumored to be the lover of Empress Maria of Alania, the daughter of King Bagrat IV of Georgia, who had been successively married to Michael VII Doukas and his successor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, renowned for her beauty.

Alexios arranged for Maria to stay on the palace grounds, and it was thought that Alexios was considering marrying the erstwhile empress.

Alexios became estranged from Maria, who was stripped of her imperial title and retired to a monastery, and Constantine Doukas was deprived of his status as co-emperor.

Alexios II Komnenos or Alexius II Comnenus () ( 10 September 1169 – 24 September 1183, Constantinople ), Byzantine emperor ( 1180 – 1183 ), was the son of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos and Maria, daughter of Raymond, prince of Antioch.

Among his collaborators was Giovanni Maria Butteri and his main pupil was Giovanni Bizzelli.

Johnson unwired the right hand door, whose window was, like the left one, merely loosely-taped fragments of glass, and Johnson wadded himself into a narrow seat made still more narrow by three cases of beer.

I seized the rack and made a western-style flying-mount just in time, one of my knees mercifully landing on my duffel bag -- and merely wrecking my camera, I was to discover later -- my other knee landing on the slivery truck floor boards and -- but this is no medical report.

It was not merely that flies were crawling over his face but his narrowed eyelids did not blink when the flies crawled into his eye sockets.

They recognized that slavery was a moral issue and not merely an economic interest, and that to recognize it explicitly in their Constitution would be in explosive contradiction to the concept of sovereignty they had set forth in the Declaration of 1776 that `` all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

After the collapse of that desperate and ill-fated campaign the character of the king degenerated for a time into a futility that was not merely pitiable but often ridiculous.

Henrietta was discovering in the process of writing, as the born writer does, not merely a channel for the discharge of accumulated information but a stimulus to the development of the creative powers of observation, insight and intuition.

and when a young man like Morris Jastrow had enjoyed the Szold hospitality, he felt obliged to send his respects and his gifts not merely to Henrietta, in whom he was really interested, but to all the Szold girls and Mamma.

`` This was not merely alleging errors, but was carried out by day-after-day allegations in memos, written charges of serious consequence.

Though merely clear glass, it was a distinctive trade mark for an aspiring actor who hoped to imprint himself upon the memories of producers.

It was not merely a hunger for `` money, gold and precious objects '' that delayed the papal pronouncement that could have brought the war to an end ; ;

J. T. Shotwell was appalled by such spurious history as that which attributed the fall of the Carolingian empire to the woolen trade, and he urged Adams to `` transform his essay into a real history, embodying not merely those facts which fit into his theory, but also the modifications and exceptions ''.

it was merely another part of his weakness.

He was merely clearing a way to what he had to do.

He worked standing, with his left hand in his pocket as though he were merely stopping for a moment, sketching with the surprised stare of one who was watching another person's hand.

It all seemed -- if one could have peeked in at him through one of his windows -- as though this broken-nosed man with the muscular arms and wrestler's neck was merely the caretaker trying his hand at the boss's work.

this was merely a ritual, to please all hands concerned.

The detective, commenting on Barco's behavior, felt that he merely belonged among the myriad citizens of our community who are mentally unhinged -- that he was a more or less harmless `` nut ''!!

When he had left, I could never remember whether he had poked them in their middles, laughingly, with a thick index finger or whether he was merely so much the sort of person who did this that one assumed the action, not bothering to look.

This indicates that increase in specificity of Af after passing it through DEAE-cellulose was not merely due to dilution.

his search was merely for rules that might limit his freedom of action.

It was merely a rationalization and ordering of new institutions of popular government.

The Justice's elaborate examination of the legislative history of the provision in question suggests that Congress' purpose was merely to make unions suable.

A formulaic element need not be held meaningless merely because it was selected with little conscious reflection.

Baseball was surely the national game in those days, even though professional baseball may have been merely a business.