Word: customs
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Krown's forecasts-unparalleled since the Biblical Joseph accurately prophesied seven good and seven bad years for Egypt-stem from his observation of an ancient custom among Israel's nomadic Bedouins. After any October in which there is moderate rainfall, the desert wanderers move out of the Negev into more hospitable land. "Early rain," they explain confidently, "means a dry year...
Never mind this classical staff, say the dedicated followers. "Still, stable, traditional--like a wall." Out to the Establishment go the catalogues in pristine cream envelopes, full of offset smugness. "Our custom department gathers the finest of fabrics for every type of wear. We are famous for maintaining expertise of the highest order in cutting and journeyman tailoring to individual order." Sure. All that hoary tradition. Sir, would you like to look at our Steep Rib Cavalry Twill pants or West of England Poacher's Tweeds? I see, sir. Well, here's our British Warm in the Snug British Officer...
Wooden Birds. Just as in Holland, where Hals and Rembrandt painted citizen companies of harquebusiers, Polish burghers formed shooting fraternities. Their aim was to defend their city walls; more often they were social militias. Their targets were wooden birds atop staffs, a custom recalled in the Cracow fraternity's emblem, which was the gift of Sigismund Augustus in 1565, with its silver cock resplendent in royal crown and symbolically attached by a chain to its perch. Poland has been partitioned out of existence only to re-emerge as a nation, changed again under present-day Communism, but its ancient...
...young intern from Harvard Medical School ('53), Dr. William Haddon Jr. adopted the custom of wearing bow ties because "I didn't want a tie draping over patients." Today, as administrator of the three-month-old National Traffic Safety Agency, Haddon still remains considerate of his patients. Last week, amid the chrome of the annual Detroit Auto Show, the industry's brass gathered to hear what Haddon's agency had in mind. To their vast relief, they discovered that they could live pretty well with Haddon's opening list of mandatory safety regulations...
...vote of the Cortes. If the Cortes does not approve the candidate, it will then pick a temporary regent to reign until a king can finally be chosen. The king, in turn, will inaugurate a royal succession in which the first male heir will inherit the throne. If normal custom is followed, the first king will be Don Juan de Borbon y Battenberg, 53, son of Spain's last king, who is now living at Estoril in Portugal and is spending his life preparing to become a constitutional monarch...