Word: customs
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Roses. Last week, in the red-and-gold pendopo (pavilion) of the Sultan of Jogjakarta, Soekarno formally took his oath of office on the Koran (which according to Moslem custom was held against the back of his head). "Brothers, brothers," he cried in his inaugural address, "I pray for strength. Our task now is to fill that vacuum called freedom . . . Now we must heal the wounds and wipe off the blood...
...this took place because of an old Spanish custom brought up to date. For years, Venezuelan employers gave their workers a Christmas aguinaldo, an annual bonus, sometimes amounting to as much as two weeks' pay. In 1936, President Eleazar Lopez Contreras turned the aguinaldo principle into law. He decreed that employers must split 10% of their profits among their workers...
...having the force of law, is the unwritten custom that the bonus should be spent before New Year's. That gave the workers a fine sense of irresponsibility, permitted some businessmen to get back in trade more than they had paid in profit-sharing, and accounted for last week's fiesta...
...polio right after he was picked as the best baseball player in the diocese of Brooklyn. At least 6 feet tall, his body was conspicuously atrophied. To pick an athlete in preference to this boy, or one like him, would be to continue a time-honored American custom, viz., discriminating unfairly against a human being because he could not overcome the crippling effects of disease. Everyone wants to help the poor athlete, but few consider the physically handicapped, than to the athlete! I wonder if those who extol the "sentiment" of school spirit can work up some sentiment...
...save on aspirin. The only trouble is, I keep thinking of jokes and I don't know what to do with them." As for TV, Allen found it "too graphic. In radio, even a moron could visualize things his way; an intelligent man, his way. It was a custom-made suit. Television is a ready-made suit. Everyone has to wear the same...