Word: customs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
During the dinner, there is little ceremony. Julian Coolidge, the House's first Master, who imported the High Table custom from Oxford, intended the Monday night dinners as a social mixer for the House staff and undergraduates. The few traditions and ceremonies that the Table does have were designed by Coolidge to ward off pompousness and keep the atmosphere easy and friendly. Thus, alert to the malaise that accompanies the combination of a heavy meal, a discourse, and a tuxedo, he expressly banished any after-dinner orations. And Elliott Perkins, the present Master, follows the old Arabic custom of taking...
From its inception the tradition has battled a host of troubles. Enthusiasts of the custom have long engaged in a gentlemanly scramble to maintain its greater and lesser traditions. The Boston fire laws of the post Cocoanut Grove era have since snuffed out the Table's candles that on its opening night in the thirties supplied the only light in the dining hall when the power failed twice. During the war, the Table's original customs nearly disappeared as a shortage of help forced patrons to abandon their tuxedos and stand in line for their food with the rest...
...length that England's first Tudor king, Henry VII, recruited them in 1485 to serve as his personal bodyguard, and that they earned their proud name in 1669 when the Grand Duke of Tuscany wrote: "They are great eaters of beef . . . They might be called beefeaters." By custom, each must have distinguished himself in service with the army or royal marines...
...Cairo, the private fleet of 80 cars (including a 1939 black Packard fitted with a double bed) which exiled Farouk was forced to leave behind were put up for public sale. In London, a collector paid $2,940 for the custom-built, armored Mercedes-Benz which belonged to the late Hermann Goring...
...this year's sweepstakes, proper timing is essential. Many Oscar contenders released earlier this year (e.g., Ivanhoe, Snows of Kilimanjaro, Carrie) are commonly regarded as already too old to get an Academy nod. This strange tradition of fast-fading eligibility has produced an equally strange custom: year-end "prerelease" of most of the brightest Oscar hopefuls...