Word: armie
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...precursors of the modern Mafia were the compagnie d'armi, small private armies that feudal overlords employed to enforce their authority. In the absence of law courts, these armies dispensed a hideous kind of primitive justice. Peasants who found a corpse with a hand chopped off knew that a petty thief had been punished. A body with severed genitals stuffed in his mouth meant that the dead man had "offended" the wife of a compagnie member. A missing tongue signified that someone had violated the code of omerta, or silence...
...time the term Mafia came into general usage in the early 19th century, the descendants of the old compagnie d'armi had evolved into a secret hierarchical organization, divided into specialized sectors that controlled Sicily's cattle and pasturelands, slaughterhouses, fruit plantations, market gardens and ports. The nucleus of the "honored association," as the Mafia's members euphemistically referred to their organization, was the family, whose members were linked by blood or marriage. A group of families would be allied in a cosca (artichoke), a cluster of separate leaves forming a single unit...
...DIED. Armi Ratia, 67, Finnish designer and the dynamo behind Marimekko, the internationally known fabric and fashion house; after a long illness; in Helsinki. In 1949 Ratia quit her advertising job to write a novel and help salvage her husband's threadbare oilcloth company. The novel never was written, but the firm with Ratia as president took shape in 1951 as Marimekko (translation: a little dress for Mary). Ratia's bold-hued, clear-figured prints and the functional clothes she cut from them became Finland's hottest export since the sauna...
...Born. To Armi Kuusela, 20, Finland's blue-eyed 1952 Miss Universe, and Virgilio Hilario, 28, well-to-do Philippine real-estate man; their first child, a son; in Manila. Name: Gil Aarne. Weight...
...Married. Armi Kuusela, 18, Finland's blonde, blue-eyed winner of last year's "Miss Universe" contest; and Virgilio Hilario, 25, well-to-do Filipino real-estate heir; in Tokyo...