Word: rituals
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...consider the ritual required of the owners of laptop computers. You must turn on the computer and, all too often, attempt to explain the concept of a C prompt to someone who seems to think it's a nice name for a speedboat. Last time I was well into the theory of dos before it struck me that the real question is why anyone should be reassured by seeing a computer screen light up at the flick of a switch. Surely the same geniuses who manufacture laptop-shaped bombs can design one that's programmed to flash GOOD MORNING, BARBARA...
General Charles Krulak, the head of the Marine Corps, has been busy denouncing the brutal September 1991 blood-pinning ritual recently seen on television. Last week, in fact, Krulak wrote a letter to the parents of all his young soldiers declaring that "tradition in the Marine Corps has nothing whatsoever to do with hurting or humiliating each other." But Mom and Pop might not be so reassured if they knew that until two months before the incident, Krulak headed the unit in which the bloody hazing took place. He commanded the 2nd Force Service Support Group at Camp Lejeune, North...
...said to have entered the realm of the normal. "Blood pinning," however, is anything but. Ordinarily, when Marine paratroopers complete 10 training jumps, they receive their golden wings, a pin with two half-inch protruding points on the back. Sometimes, with that military love of macho ritual, the pin is even proudly thumped into a Marine's chest to draw a little celebratory blood. But according to two amateur videotapes obtained by Dateline NBC and aired as well on CNN late last week, that ritual sometimes descends into something much more barbaric...
...these protestations, pinning has a long history in the corps, and a few young jarheads last week jokingly called it a "Marine sewing circle," insisting that the ritual is an integral part of Marine bonding. But even some men who have been pinned warn that the tapes depict a form of hazing far more vicious than the customary single punch. Bernard Trainor, a retired Marine lieutenant general who lectures on national security at Harvard, has fond memories of the day he received his punch 32 years ago in Vietnam. "I never questioned it," he says. "It was part...
When singer-songwriter Erykah Badu goes before an audience, she observes a ritual to clear away any preperformance anxiety. "I light my candle onstage," says Badu. "I create my calm where I am. I close my eyes, open them again, and I'm O.K." Badu's music is a lot like that. Her debut CD, Baduizm (Kedar Entertainment/Universal), draws from soul, jazz, blues and hip-hop--but instead of a chaotic swirl of sound, the result is a slow-burning, serene, meditative work. It will open some eyes...