It was the last halfcentury in which that could be said.

Until then, for the more than halfcentury (Galactic Standard) of his life, he had been utterly planet-bound.

But in the halfcentury leading up to that lapsed state of grace, the Company's top management went through a series of stops and starts, scrious internal wrangling and several boardroom convulsions.

And we are left without really knowing any more, and not in a position to do any more informed guesswork, about what brought on the flow of magic from the man's mind to the copy paper for a halfcentury.

As the 50th anniversary of that great storm arrives along with my halfcentury birthday, I look back to this sequence of memory for the start of my curious and paradoxical bonding to the hurricane of 1938.

Each ship was met at the docks by a halfcentury of the first cohort, the Batavian horse-guards, hand-picked for their unswerving loyalty to their emperor and, importantly, their well-tested ability to keep their counsel while blind drunk.

Even though he and Stephen spent most of a halfcentury cutting the youthful Dominion's important business deals, nearly went bankrupt together, and ultimately fathered Montreal's essential philanthropies, Smith wrote Stephen few letters, preferring to discuss important issues personally, even if it meant crossing the Atlantic to do so.

These words were said more than half a century ago, but what about today?

More than half a century later, they are still together.

He lost his friend at war almost half a century ago.

Thus came to an end almost half a century of history.

He has done so for about half a century now.

The law had been in place for more than half a century.

The war has been going on for nearly half a century.

The men have known each other for half a century.

For more than half a century our families have been together.

After more than half a century and four children together, these things happen.

We've had a working society here for over half a century.

In half a century I will look exactly like her.

Its been half a century, and yet I remember her.

For half a century we used the power to help my people.

And then no more for at least half a century.

And he knew one other thing, from half a century of experience.

Brought together for the first time in over half a century.

In fact, the name was wrong for almost half a century!

He had been living there for almost half a century.

Half a century has passed since the two countries went to war.

They have been running this race for over half a century.

But nearly half a century later, they speak of the same things.

It seems a world away, not just half a century ago.

That had not happened in more than half a century.

Half a century later, it is still something to see.

But about half a ton of material is likely to make it through.

Half a ton of the stuff's already been carried away.

It felt like I was carrying half a ton on my back.

When a man weighs better than half a ton, he doesn't feel like moving much.

Something weighing half a ton hit me right on top of the head and I went out like a light.

The van probably weighed a half a ton more than his car.

It seemed to have gained half a ton since lunch.

What do you think's going to happen when half a ton of angry men burst through your front door?

I used to go with half a ton of sweets in my back pocket.

They can drag off things weighing half a ton or more.

Certainly he never put up half a ton of duodecimates.

Truth to tell, the damned thing weighed half a ton.

The woman weighs half a ton, and the bedrooms are at the top of the house.

Thanks for the thought, but I still have half a ton of paperwork to wade through.

About half a ton a year is produced from liquid air and used for research purposes.

There must have been half a ton of it.

It is nearly the weight of half a ton.

She'd lost a few stone since the last time he'd seen her and put on about half a ton of make-up.

At more than half a ton, that was a respectable weight for an elephant.

He felt the machine give a little jump as it suddenly became half a ton lighter.

However, we've got close to half a ton of it on handyou can have all you want.

Investigators think the bomb weighed up to half a ton.

The wind threw half a ton of ice-water on him.

That slab of wood had to weigh half a ton!