Sometimes I chose the names of childhood friends I hadn't seen in decades and found myself re-enacting nasty pre-pubescent squabbles.

Since he took office two years ago, some of his nastiest squabbles have been with fellow Democrats.

If it hadn't been for Namid's presence and diversionary tactics, she was sure there would have been fairly nasty squabbles, due simply to the pressures of so much proximity.

For nearly two years, Mrs. Selzer and the school board have been locked in a nasty squabble over what to do with the farm where she has lived for half a century.

No fight, not even its nastiest squabbles in the Reagan-Bush years, has so ignited labor, and no defeat has so stunned it.

In the nasty squabble between the International Business Machines Corporation and the Microsoft Corporation over computer operating systems, Roel Pieper is the uninvited guest that neither side wants to notice.

Months before they are to start scrutinizing any fine print in the Clinton Administration's plan to overhaul health care, some of the Senate's leading figures have fallen into a nasty squabble over who should hold the magnifying glass.

Soon came one of the nastiest squabbles between two teams in N.F.L. history, as the Patriots and the Jets fought over Parcells's rights.

Also, the borough president got into a nasty public squabble with Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, who was apparently miffed because he had not seen the design in advance.

Even then, there were nasty squabbles over the meat paste sandwiches.