Word: ritual
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...blonde icicle, melts visibly before the zany hothead. Casimir soon spills his top secret: he is a "Divinely Separated person" who has found a "Unifying Purpose" that will give the human race a healthy substitute for war. "That Unifying Purpose," he says, "has got to have a ritual, a symbolism, an exercise, some world-wide activity that is simple and joyful and harmless. And in a lifetime of searching, I have yet to find an activity that surpasses roller-skating...
...M.R.P. (Catholic) Party voted against Mollet in Parliament, forcing him to carry the issue (a minor budgetary item) on Communist votes. The meaning of these rebukes was plain to most Frenchmen: the politicians were turning their back on Mollet. This is the inevitable first step in an ancient French ritual: first declare your victim use (finished), put together a hypothetical majority to replace his government, then agree on a potential new Premier and the proper distribution of Cabinet posts...
...orthodox have always been a little leery of Simone Weil, and with some reason. The Notebooks, chockablock with the ritual lore of a dozen sects and faiths, show that she was deeply preoccupied with Dionysus, Osiris, Buddha and Plato as well as Christ. She applauds continually the Greek ideals of harmony, measure, proportion and order. Yet she herself burns with a passion for the Absolute, and the Hellenic "nothing in excess" is precisely the law she could not live by. Her grandeur, as well as her absurdity, it has been pointed out, is that she shares the apocalyptic vision...
...training-table menu of steaks and chops is an overworked ritual, say a trio of Harvard doctors in the current Journal of the American Medical Association. Good red meat is good for anyone; but though it may make an athlete think he is stronger, it works no more magic than the ground lions'-teeth with which ancient warriors spiced their meals. For the most part, "there is considerable doubt whether manipulation of an adequate diet can enhance performance . . . The best diet for an athlete is one that he enjoys and one that, at the same time, provides a variety...
...novelty on the program was Falla's ballet music El Amor Brujo, the best known section of which is the Ritual Dance of Fire. Based on Spanish folk spirit, Falla's music is exotic, feverish, and sometimes haunting. Soloist Malama Providakes sang with an idiomatic flavor reminiscent of the great contralto Conchita Supervia, with a dark, full-blooded tone. There were several lovely Oboe solos from Cynthia Deery, while the Orchestra as a whole played with both fire and precision...