Old friends may disappear in panic, while others, often mere acquaintances, find enough within themselves to give with unexpected richness.
Today, the family's relatives and colleagues all know Mehran's real gender, but the appearance of a son before guests and acquaintances is just enough to keep the family functioning, Mrs. Rafaat said.
Such acquaintance is rare enough, however, for estates to be well advised in keeping the cameras out.
I run Edge Hill University's MA in Women's Writing: 1500 to the Present Day, and was amazed to be asked by an acquaintance recently whether enough female writers even existed to fill our two-year degree... our course demonstrates that women writers have been just as prolific as their male counterparts for centuries now.
Discarded lovers were redistributed among his friends and acquaintances until they begat enough relationships to recall the Old Testament.
I put that question to an acquaintance from Greenwich, Conn .with enough money to buy any car he wants.
A 'nodding acquaintance' isn't good enough for risking those homemade popcorn balls.
On a recent Friday night, he gathered in the East Village with nine acquaintances he had deemed cool enough to call his friends.
He explains that William Goldman, a screenwriter, did a similar exercise for Broadway 30 years earlier; but emulating one's more famous friends (most of the stars who appear in the book are described as friends or acquaintances) does not seem reason enough.
He dressed well, lived well, ate well, gave great lunches and parties, was generous to a fault, suffered fools not at all and hardly ever mentioned that he had worked for the C.I.A. (although even acquaintances heard about it soon enough).
