Word: ritual
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...breaks up with his new lover, deciding that he prefers his porno tapes to her ("I've only known you for a few weeks. But I've been involved with some of those women for years!"). To win fabulous prizes, a woman mocks her lover's after-sex ritual--"a ham sandwich and ESPN"--in front of a studio audience. A girl loses her virginity to her boyfriend--who turns into an evil vampire. Sex on TV is still plentiful. A study this year by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that 56% of 1,351 sampled shows...
Lifting folded palms to the rising sun, silver-haired Veer Bhadra Mishra steps into the Ganges to begin his ritual morning ablution. As the mahant, or spiritual and administrative head, of the second largest temple in Varanasi, the main destination for Hindu pilgrims in India, Mishra is a very important man. Since the 16th century, the job has passed from father to eldest son. Devotees scramble to touch his feet, traders whisper their business hopes, and students seek his blessing before final exams. As a child he learned the sacred chants and rites--including the importance of a daily...
...night John Kennedy Jr.'s plane went down, his cousin Patrick was not with the rest of the family for the celebration of his cousin Rory's wedding. The third-term Congressman from Rhode Island was performing just about the only other Kennedy ritual that would exempt him from attendance--politicking. As chairman of the Democratic congressional campaign committee, Kennedy was in San Francisco doing what he does almost every weekend--scooping up campaign cash to help Democrats win back the House of Representatives...
...first, the 9 a.m. watering ritual struck me as odd, only because even in my native Boston suburb, where water is plentiful, we have rules prohibiting midday plant watering during the hottest months. But as my summer in Jerusalem and the Middle East continues, I have become increasingly attuned to drinking, washing, watering, swimming, cleaning and flushing--anything that involves the precious molecule, H2O. Water availability and attitudes towards this natural resource are subtle yet omnipresent symbols of the different worlds which coexist here, as well as a source of conflict between them...
...Kennedys have lived their lives on a vast public stage where children run and tussle and accomplished grownups gather for strenuous rituals of work and play amid the gaiety and laughter. And then death steps in to stop the proceedings, again and again. There seems to be no respite in this horrible ritual...