Word: sundowners
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...like the Energizer Bunny. Many of us comment on how he goes from sunup to well past sundown trying to attend as many official duties as he can. If he's invited to 10 meetings in a day, he will go to those 10 meetings - and set up five more." - Representative Jeff Miller, a Florida Republican (the State, July...
...bullet holes. Concrete roads are riddled with gaping holes in the ground where improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have been laid. And blackened divots are visible where suicide bombers - or 'human IEDs,' in colloquial parlance - blew themselves up. The streets of Kandahar, once a thriving business hub, go empty at sundown as shops selling Persian carpets and gold signet rings pull down their shutters. Thin slivers of smoke are seen rising from the roadside iftar stalls selling kebabs, the only visible sign of life after dark. Those, too, fade away after a while...
...rules of Ramadan are fairly straightforward: for one month, all practicing, able-bodied Muslims over the age of 12 are forbidden to eat or drink from sunup to sundown. Muslims believe that during this month the gates of hell close - meaning the devil is unable to tempt them during a month of discipline, charity and self-control. The objective of the fast, which also prohibits participating in "sensual pleasures" such as smoking, sex and even listening to music during daylight hours, is to diminish believers' dependence on material goods, purify their hearts and establish solidarity with the poor to encourage...
...rest of the day is spent reciting prayers, abstaining from bad deeds and reading the Koran. Fasters are expected to read the entire holy book within the month, and many mosques have taken to splitting it into 30 even portions recited in daily sermons. The fast lasts until sundown - or until it's too dark to "distinguish a white thread from a black thread," according to the Koran - and is broken with a small meal called an iftar which is followed by the Magrib prayer before the fasters join their families and invite the poor for a larger celebratory meal...
...crowds in Tehran did not disperse until sundown. "At about 8 p.m.," said an eyewitness, "I went through Vanak again and saw the Mad Max army of [Basij] motor bikes amassed," taking control of the city once more. "But for a few hours," the witness said, "I saw a look in many people's faces that I had not seen since the week after the election - a look that said, 'We can win this...