He choked me until I passed out, smashed my head repeatedly into a cement floor, left hooked me more times than I care to recall, kicked me if I fell down, punched my breasts so they were terribly bruised, hit me in the face until I bled, etc.

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The next day, when the cloud moved and I completed my journey, I learned that, after a similar belch of ash choked out all four engines of a K.L.M. flight into Anchorage in 1989, Ted Stevens finagled an earmark on an appropriations bill to secure federal funds for the Alaska Volcano Observatory, whose missions included the monitoring of volcanic activity and its attendant hazards.

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"I apparently clogged a lot of the pores and some follicles, and choked them out during the six-week run, " he recalled.

WSJ: Michael Chiklis | Heavy Opportunities | A Cultural Conversation by Joanne Kaufman