Word: customs
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...pops the question (that is still the custom), a yes may really set him back a bundle. An absolutely unflawed one-carat diamond of the finest color, only $2,000 in the 1950s, now costs about $50,000, or more than many three-bedroom houses did not so long ago. The blood test and marriage license have remained affordable at $20 and $5 (formerly $7 and $2), but once the honeymoon is over and tax time comes around, the newlyweds discover that the party is really over. If they both work and earn $20,000 apiece, together they pay Uncle...
...power elite, whatever their profession, often have known each other closely for a half-century. When executives retire, they frequently become corporate advisers, honorary chairmen and industrial counselors. Likewise, when senior civil servants leave government they may become top advisers in the very corporations they once regulated; the custom is called amakudari or, literally, "descent from heaven...
...much of the less-developed world what some Westerners might regard as commercial corruption of government and business has always been looked upon as an inescapable fact of everyday life. The stylized arrangements for giving and taking payments are often perfectly normal and legal under local law and custom...
...custom the seats behind the exit door had become "colored" seats, and no matter how many whites were standing, any black sitting behind the exit door knew he or she wouldn't have to move. The disputed area was opposite the exit door. This was no man's land. White people sat there and black people sat there. If the back section was full, the next black passenger who got on sat in the no man's land seat; but if the white section filled up, a white person would take the seat. The white people, though...
Sadat, accompanied by his wife Jehan, next flew to Paris for what had been billed as a two-day private visit to the French capital. Instead, it had all the makings of a state affair. Accompanied by his wife Anne-Aymone, the protocol-conscious Giscard broke with custom by meeting the Sadats at the airport (something he never does unless it is an official state visit), escorted them on a leisurely tour of the city, then hosted a lunch at the Elysee Palace. Afterward, Giscard and Sadat spent two hours talking privately...