Word: familiar
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...China, was forced to liquidate after it could not meet bank demands to repay its debts. Analysts say the company borrowed too much and expanded too fast in the rush to catch China's economic wave. As the global economy slows, that's likely to become a familiar refrain - and as a result, lenders are increasingly scrutinizing their customers' balance sheets and cash-flow statements for signs of stress that could lead to default. One Hong Kong businesswoman, who asked not to be named for fear of alarming already jittery creditors, says her bankers recently descended on her office...
Early in to Siberia, a new novel by Per Petterson (Graywolf Press; 245 pages), the narrator and her older brother cut their hands and mix their blood. It's a familiar childhood ritual, sweetened by naive redundancy: How much closer than siblings can you be? The bond between this sister and brother turns out to be a love story--pure, but as painful as the touch of steel to skin...
...self-deprecating humor is familiar to the 4,500 residents of this beautiful, barren 450,000-acre (182 hectare) reservation. Irony is almost unavoidable because the realities of life here are grim. According to school officials, nearly half of all families exist below the poverty line. Unemployment runs as high as 85%. Alcohol and drug abuse are appalling...
...second-class intellect but a first-class temperament." Many historians now believe that Holmes was talking about Teddy Roosevelt rather than Franklin, but the story is oft told because it suggests a larger truth: that the most important attribute of a President is not intellect but something both more familiar and less knowable--temperament. The job of the modern presidency is so complex, so taxing, so intense that one's disposition even more than one's mental bandwidth may be the key to handling...
...admit they're still basing their Election Day plans on where the voting rolls stood in August, long before student-voter drives even started, let alone achieved record successes. To accommodate the swollen voting rolls, many understaffed offices will have to hire temps or new employees who are less familiar with standard procedures and may be more prone to making mistakes...