Word: solemn
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...toast from the 13th Earl of Gurney: "To England, this teeming womb of privilege." His luncheon companions, each a member of the House of Lords, raise their glasses in solemn salute. Later, at home, his manservant Tucker (Arthur Lowe) offers the earl (Harry Andrews) his evening whisky and a selection of nooses on a silver salver. "May I suggest the silk, sir?" Tucker says respectfully. The earl accepts, and begins his evening ritual, first stripping to his long underwear, then donning a regimental uniform jacket and a white ballet skirt, and finally stringing himself up for a harmless little swing...
Weaving was partly a religious ritual, accompanied by solemn chants. "Spider Woman instructed the Navajo women how to weave on a loom that Spider Man told them how to make," according to a Navajo legend. "The crosspoles were made of sky and earth cords, the warp sticks of sun rays, the healds of crystal and lightning...
...Russians also won the gold and bronze medals in the women's all-round individual. That came as no surprise; the Soviets had dominated women's gymnastic events since they began Olympic competition. Winner of the individual was Ludmilla Tourischeva, 19, a solemn, dark-haired beauty who enjoys virtual prima-ballerina status in the Soviet Union. Executing such complicated maneuvers as 360° swings and somersaults underneath the uneven bars, Tourischeva outpointed the D.D.R.'s Janz and Teammate Tamara Lazakovich...
...past two years, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia's greatest living writer, has been prevented from delivering the lecture that Nobel prizewinners customarily give. In 1970, when he won the award, Soviet officials forbade him to travel to Sweden for the solemn ceremony. Gunnar Jarring, Sweden's ambassador to Moscow, refused to transmit Solzhenitsyn's manuscript to Stockholm by diplomatic pouch. Last week the long-awaited lecture finally appeared in the yearbook of the Nobel Foundation, which did not disclose how it had been obtained...
Like AA. Like most Recovery, Inc. meetings, this was a highly structured affair, with a solemn, inspirational tone reminiscent of Alcoholics Anonymous. But just as the twelve-step credo of AA, which would turn off a normal social drinker, has real significance for the man who has faced the horrors of dipsomania, so the ritual of Recovery, Inc. is acceptable, perhaps necessary, for many who have gone through the hell of emotional breakdown...