Word: customs
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...July 1776, General George Washington isued an order banning profanity* in the Continental Armies. He wrote: "That unmeaning and abominable custom -swearing." Last week in Tokyo, an Army chaplain, Lieut. Colonel Lisle Bartholomew, set out to discourage profanity in the 25th Infantry Division by reminding its soldiers that General Washington's order had never been rescinded. Perhaps mindful that it had seldom been obeyed either, he ended up by sanctioning one four-letter word: "A healthy damn," he said, "will tend to let off steam [but] the others . . . are to be detested...
Anne Ford, also by Gainsborough, is the Cincinnati Art Museum favorite. The model later married one of Gainsborough's patrons, Sir Philip Thicknesse, who admired the painter for finishing "with his own hands every part of the drapery," instead of following the 18th century custom of letting an assistant do the costume...
...were they downhearted? Not a bit of it. As soon as his feet had healed, Jim Maxwell went climbing in New Hampshire; Dave ordered a pair of custom boots, laid in a fresh supply of hubris, and set out to climb the Selkirks in British Columbia...
...tradition of the Indian sanyasis (holy men), they wear coarse cotton robes dyed a bright saffron. At mealtimes they eat a strict vegetarian diet of tapioca, rice and lentils. When they chant their prayers, they sit cross-legged on the floor. They wear no shoes or sandals, for Indian custom forbids any footgear inside a holy place...
...Benedictines of Salem encourage Indian Christians to keep as much of their native custom as possible, e.g., Christian brides do not wear wedding rings, but tie a thread around their necks as Hindus do. The monastery itself has fitted snugly into the life of the surrounding communities. Local farmers now come there to get medicine for their sick and to look over the Catholic sanyasis' agricultural methods. Said one Salem Hindu: "They look more like our type of sanyasis. Maybe there's something in their religion." This is the kind of talk that Dom Philip likes to hear...