Instead of taking a walk that cold night, Merckle drove to the suburb of Weiler, parked his car in the Ratiopharm lot and walked a few hundred yards to the train tracks that run past the plant.

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After our fresh lunch of trout, roasted onions and pineapple, we took a short hike, using hip waders to walk into the cold stream that emptied the lake.

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"For him to go off nice and relaxed in 24 and change and come home on his own the way he did, and gallop out the way he did, and drop his head and walk home, it sent cold chills up my back, " the Hall of Fame trainer said.

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She has also tried hiring a fetching woman to stroll along the sidewalk in front of the restaurant and give away cups of cold borscht, a gesture geared to attract walk-in business to a restaurant where it was once impossible to get a reservation.

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"Mmm, " the kids say, before we walk into our airless apartment with its cold stove.

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We are close to the realization of the smart home and the smart office, when we will never again have to walk into a dark room or a cold building.

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By taking a slow walk into the water to acclimate the body to the cold.

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"Take the day off, stay home, don't deal with the traffic, and all will be fine, and if you're so inclined, walk down to the Mall with the masses and stand there in the cold, where you will probably see nothing, " he said.

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Then you can walk down the steps and have a pleasant lunch and justify the second glass of cold Bergerac wine by virtue of having to pedal all the way back to Treyne in time for Champagne cocktails on the patio and one last death-defying inhalation of foie gras.

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