Word: promptings
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...precisely when one should arrive is one of mankind's smaller but more persistent social problems. In New York and most other urban areas of the East, for example, an invitation for dinner at 8 really means 8:30; the hostess would be stunned, perhaps even destroyed, by prompt arrival. A "sixish" party at East Coast summer resorts seldom begins before 7-and guests are on time if they show up before midnight. In the West or Midwest, however, the time declared on an invitation normally means what it says, within five or ten minutes...
...well, a bit Teutonic, but to be more than ten minutes late without a good excuse is inexcusably rude. In South America and the Latin countries of Europe, however, it is almost too difficult to be too late. If a hostess wants her guests to be prompt -meaning half an hour or so after the stated time-she specifies an "English hour," or sometimes in Latin America, an "American hour." The Russians are equally relaxed about time. In the Middle East, an invitation often does not even include the time, but can be "Come for the evening." For the host...
...four grandchildren in the fire. Few apparently survived in the destroyed sections-25 square blocks-of the Old City. If they escaped the flames, they ran into gunfire. To frighten survivors, soldiers refused to allow the removal of decomposing bodies for three days, despite the Moslem belief in prompt burial, preferably within 24 hours, to free the soul...
...Klein, who runs Checkup, a private, computerized diagnostic center in Chicago, offers evidence that the process can pay. By screening members of a union that subscribed to his service, he uncovered signs of glaucoma, a serious eye disease, in six. Two of the patients would have gone blind without prompt treatment. The projected cost of supporting the two men for the rest of their lives, if they had lost their sight, equaled the cost of Checkup's entire operation for five years...
Though bee and wasp stings are little more than a brief, painful annoyance to most people, they occasionally produce violent-even fatal-reactions in those who are allergic to insect venom. Severe sudden respiratory impairment and circulatory collapse are among the possible consequences. Victims must have prompt treatment to minimize their reactions. Even better, says Dr. Mary Loveless, a semiretired member of the Cornell Medical School faculty, those reactions may now be prevented. During the past two decade,,Dr. Loveless told the biological societies, she has treated more than 200 patients who are allergic to wasp bites by injecting them...