An hour before curtain at "Mamma Mia!" at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway, Craig Cassidy, the head sound man, starts his nightly ritual of testing the wireless microphones that the performers wear hidden in their white spandex bell bottoms.
One example is R.W., a 16-year-old boy who was sentenced to an adult prison where he was raped and beaten as part of an institutionally accepted initiation ritual, or "test of heart".
In one of a series of "crawl projects" -- part ritual, part endurance test and part farce -- he crawled up the Bowery on his stomach wearing a business suit.
Ceramic vessel fragments from both domestic and ritual contexts were tested, and theobromine (a chemical compound unique to cacao) was identified on several types of vessels.
It forced BofA to nix the divided increase and share buyback plans that the bank had so triumphantly announced after being told in March it had passed the dreaded annual stress test ritual.
However, if you do feel the need to persuade me that the testing ritual is excellent and worthwhile, you should know that I have heard most of your arguments, and, frankly, you need new ones.
Dear Local Education Authority (LEA), State Education Authority (SEA), and Federal Education Bureaucrat (FEB?), We are rapidly approaching the annual state-mandated testing ritual in public school, and it has become evident that all of you are a little nervous about that.
It probably started among South American tribes as a blood sacrifice or ritual mutilation to test bravery and endurance, and its use later evolved into a rite of initiation.
One ritual, a tried and tested one, has been added recently.
