Word: customs
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...Adam Bellow, the book review editor of The National Review. Think George W. Bush. Think Al Gore. Think Adam Bellow, the son of novelist Saul Bellow, and the author of "In Praise of Nepotism" (Doubleday; April). Says his publisher, "Nepotism, the favored treatment of one?s relations, is a custom with infinitely more practitioners than defenders - especially in America, where a 200-year war has been waged against it by the forces of enlightened reform. It offends our sense of fair play and our meritocratic ethos, where what we have is supposed to be earned. But this campaign has been...
...capital-D decorated. Also not for her are the empty recesses of stark minimalism. She understands that people collect stuff, and finds a way to let them, without causing clutter. This balancing act lends her interiors a certain timelessness. Her own home, which she decorated seven years ago, mixing custom-made pieces with a chair found in the trash, is still being photographed for decorating magazines...
...Whistle, her voice is more resonant than on her Japanese-language songs, and the track boasts beats that are more forceful. She leaves no doubt: she's got Mary J. Blige, 125th Street-type soul. There's another twist. The credits bill her as "Hikaru Utada"--using the Western custom of listing the surname last. Says Hikaru: "I just figured it's a good way to separate my English and Japanese personas." After the interview, she sends a follow-up e-mail that begins, "This is Hikaru Utada. (Or is it Utada Hikaru...oh, whichever!)" She's still a freshman...
...survival of sword-wielding pirates in island lairs has as much to do with custom as desperation. The captain sees his life as traditionally Sangir. "For us the sea is a huge source, for fish, but also for life," he says. "It's the way our people have always lived. My grandfather and great-grandfather before him, and my son, too." The pirate king half-heartedly claims he was forced into crime by poverty. But he admits to "throwing a lot around" on women and booze after a raid: "We never count our money, we just take...
...body weakened, I thought of my grandfather who had died of thirst in a communist jail. I wondered whether I, in my freedom, was about to suffer a similar fate. Perhaps I was being punished for my lack of filial duty. I had contravened the ancient Chinese custom that dictates: "When your parents are still alive, don't wander far from home...