Word: customs
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When an Iranian wants to be safe from the police, he reverts to an old custom called bast, or asylum. The recognized sanctuaries are Parliament buildings, mosques, the royal palace and stables, and, curiously enough, telegraph offices. As Iran last week reeled through its second national election in seven months, citizens were scampering in all directions seeking bast...
...make matters worse, more than half of the church's "livings" are filled by "patrons"-a custom inherited from pre-Norman times, when the privilege (known as "advowson") came to be attached to the estate of the lord of the manor, who can bequeath the privilege or sell it. Thus a priest in search of a parish is never sure to what kind of patron he must sell himself. In Acle, Norfolk, for example, it is Brigadier Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe; in Parracombe, Devon it is the Misses Nind; Colonel Pine-Coffin picks the parson for St. Andrews Alwington, Devon...
...should always be snow. Reason: snow machines, an expensive network of pipes, hoses and nozzles lining the ski trails. Water, atomized by a compressed air blast, turns into snow crystals as it sprays out into below-freezing temperatures. Not only are the machines making of skiing a new Southern custom, but they are bailing out northern areas that have been losing money for lack of steady snow. For the beginner or afternoon skier, they are also creating a new set of small ski slopes...
...once the accepted custom for every student to have his own suite," Pattullo said, but existing conditions would make this ideal situation undesirable and impractical...
...that the constitutions of the two countries show a similar contrast. Whereas the U.S. Constitution represents the belief that a desired form of political behavior can only be obtained by forging institutional checks, the British rely on more informal, internalised means of persuasion--unwritten codes and the weight of custom--to regulate the activities of government...