Boris Becker designer Barbara Feltus. On 18 January 1994, their son Noah Gabriel, named after Becker's friends Yannick Noah and Peter Gabriel, was born. Their second child, Elias Balthasar, was born on 4 September 1999. Before the marriage, they shocked some in Germany by posing nude for the cover of "Stern" in a picture taken by her father. After Becker asked Barbara for a separation in December 2000, she flew to Miami, Florida, with Noah and Elias and filed a divorce petition in Miami-Dade County Court, sidestepping their prenuptial agreement which had entitled her to a single $2.5 million payoff. Barbara left
Howard S. Becker a seminar at Northwestern University on sociological writing style. In an interview, Becker states "bad sociological writing cannot be separated from the theoretical problems of the discipline." Thus, Becker advises scholars to write in a direct style; avoiding the passive voice and abstract nouns. In "Tricks of the Trade," Becker outlines his ideas on sociological methods. The book focuses on Becker's belief that it is impossible to establish a method of research independent of the situation it is being used in. According to Becker, the principles of social research he describes in the book are based primarily on what he