Word: puritanize
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Previously, it was illegal to serve a minor in Massachusetts. But Massachusetts law contained no rules against drinking alcohol that, say, dropped from the sky--a curious phenomenon that seemed to happen often in Cambridge. The Puritan holdovers in the State House have made it officially illegal for minors to possess alcohol, meaning even Corona from the clouds is off limits...
...events of the past couple of months are summer translations of the same anxieties and paralysis all true Harvard students endure. After three months of this self-induced, Puritan angst, a recognizable patern has emerged...
America has long wrestled with the tension between its Puritan and pioneer heritages, and its attitude toward sex has often seemed muddled. Victorian parents, fearful of their children's sexuality, would try to delay the onset of puberty by underfeeding their children. By 1910 exploding rates of syphilis drove the crusade for sex education in much the way AIDS does today. In 1940 the U.S. Public Health Service argued the urgent need for schools to get involved, and within a few years the first standardized programs rolled into classrooms. But by the 1960s came the backlash from the John Birch...
...name is sometimes a ridiculous fate. For example, a man afflicted with the name of Kill Sin Pimple lived in Sussex, in 1609. In the spring of that year, the record shows, Kill Sin served on a jury with his Puritan neighbors, including Fly Debate Roberts, More Fruit Fowler, God Reward Smart, Be Faithful Joiner and Fight the Good Fight of Faith White. Poor men. At birth, their parents had turned them into religious bumper stickers...
Names may carry strange freights -- perverse jokes, weird energies of inflicted embarrassment. Another 17th century Puritan child was condemned to bear the name of Flie Fornication Andrewes. Of course, it is also possible that Andrewes sailed along, calling himself by a jaunty, executive "F.F. Andrewes." Even the most humiliating name can sometimes be painted over or escaped altogether. Initials are invaluable: H.R. (Bob) Haldeman, of the Nixon White House, deftly suppressed Harry Robbins: "Harry Haldeman" might not have worked...