Word: rites
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Last week Harry Truman, by right of office, was the presiding panjandrum at the nation's annual rite of spring, the Washington Senators' opening ball game. Showing off his ambidexterity, he looped out one ball with his right and another with his left hand and the game was on. He had predicted beforehand that the Senators would beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 5-3, sat with Bess and Margaret -drinking soda pop and munching popcorn-until they...
...long review of Britain's economic position. He spoke steadily for two hours and 17 minutes, pausing only twice for bird-like sips from a glass of orange juice and honey. At the end of the first hour the drama had been squeezed out of the annual rite; some members' heads were nodding. Winston Churchill fidgeted fretfully, first slumping down in his seat, then drawing himself bolt upright to peer dully at the green carpet between his feet. When Cripps finished, there were only two cheerful men in the chamber-Cripps himself and Tory Chief Lord Woolton...
...press conference someone said he had heard that Bess Truman "used to beat even the boys at mumblety-peg when she was a child in Independence. She used to pull the peg out with her teeth, too." Quickly rallying, Mrs. Helm replied: "That's an esoteric rite of the player. I used to play it myself...
...Tokyo's sprawling red-light district, other Japanese revived a rite of spring. For centuries up to 1913, the annual parade of Tokyo's fairest prostitutes had been a vernal harbinger as reliable as the appearance of the first robin. Under U.S. regulations prostitutes are outlawed, but Tokyo's brothels, thinly disguised as "teahouses," still cater to an average of 500 customers nightly. Last week, each leaning on an attendant and trying her best to walk in the traditional graceful gait of her calling, under the weight of a 6-lb. wig and suffocatingly embroidered antique costume...
...Lehmann fans the performance in Manhattan's Town Hall had the air of a religious rite. They sat devout and mouse-quiet while the singer, dressed in sober black, her chestnut hair caught back in a plain bun, leaned gently against the curve of the piano. Without properties, costume or conspicuous gesture, Soprano Lehmann recreated the aging Viennese beauty with her oldtime fire and finesse...