We must remember that the Byzantine rite is basically the rite of the Great Church, and in a cathedral the size of Hagia Sophia to have done all this in the church itself just before the transfer of gifts would have taken an enormous amount of time.

Given this insecurity, the creators of “The Simpsons” took an extraordinary risk: they decided not to use a laugh track. On almost all other sitcoms, dialogue was interrupted repeatedly by crescendos of phony guffaws (or by the electronically enhanced laughter of live audiences), creating the unreal ebb and flow of sitcom conversation, in which a typical character’s initial reaction to an ostensibly humorous remark could only be to smile archly or look around while waiting for the yucks to die down.

This new batch was sent to Leicester shed, and the redoubtable enginemen who had made such a reputation for themselves with the ex-G.C.R. Atlantics took to the B17s immediately, although, of course, they required quite different driving methods; ….

He might not have meant to ignore her, answered Isabel thoughtfully; he might have chosen not to introduce her because he felt too proud of her to subject her to any possible misappreciation from them.