Word: byword
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...charms to the dual forces of modernizing government and globalization, but there's one corner of the nation left largely untouched by progress. Parliament's Upper Chamber, the House of Lords, with its 743 members, including 92 who are there only by dint of their aristocratic lineage, remains a byword for tradition and gentility. Those qualities were at least partially reflected in a recent headline from The Sunday Times: "Whispered over tea and cake: price for a peer to fix the law." According to the article, the polite rituals of afternoon tea accompanied a less rarified interchange. The newspaper claimed...
...Sunni fighters that patrol Dora, a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad where al-Qaeda had banned barbershops and outlawed alcohol. He had 422 men, but about 50 fled, fearing arrest by the government. The district, which is hemmed in by high concrete T-walls, was a byword for terror before locals like the sheikh joined with U.S. forces to rout the extremists...
...there appear to be limits, especially when a poem or prayer or image has proven itself as a cultural byword and/or moneymaker; and when the alleged author is old or dead and represented by an heir. The Times reports that Niehbur himself, although convinced of his authorship of the Serenity Prayer, graciously qualified his claim. His daughter, intellectually and professionally invested in her book as well as his legacy, come across as considerably more vehement. Likewise, it was not Mary Stevenson, who died in 1999, but her son who brought the "Barefoot" suit...
...worth $2.4 billion a year. Though that is less than a tenth of Hollywood's take, India's industry should double in the next five years, while its American counterpart will be lucky to grow 15% or so in that period. The business side of Bollywood, once a byword for dodgy tax deals and shady financing, has gone legit in the past few years, too. Indian companies are now more professionally run, and a few innovators are far ahead of Western rivals in experimenting with things like distributing films over the Internet...
...success as a journalist that few people remember Tim Russert was once the Democratic Lee Atwater - the smartest, toughest, most instinctive political aide around. In 1984, when Gary Hart was floundering in a bid for the presidency, he famously said, "Get me a Russert," and Tim became a byword for a savvy political adviser who understood both the electorate and the media. Some people are born with a gene for politics. Tim was one of them...