His life unfurled as I learned the names of the seams that make up the Great Northern Coalfield: Brockwell, Busty, Tilley, Harvey, Hutton, Durham Low Main, Maudlin, Durham Main and Five Quarter, once all better known than players in a football team.
The one we all better know about if we know what's good for us".
The doctor had tested the cat and found she was a fruitful subject - apples, cheese, hen, goose and duck feathers, all the better known noxious weeds, cotton wood pollen and cat hair.
The cloisters of Gloucester, after all, are better known as the corridors of Hogwarts.
The eminent English director is, after all, far better known than Adrian Lester, the fine young English actor who has the title role.
The steamy, colourful port city of Veracruz; Guadalajara, home of tequila-drinking and Mariachi music; the manifold attractions of Mexico City, with its 10m population: all are better known to many Mexicans.
When it came to casting the drunken lecher who was also the boss of all aliens, better known as Big Giant Head, the producers lured William Shatner, long before he reappeared on the pop culture radar with his Priceline commercials.
And with tens of thousands of airline industry workers idled across the country, it was hard to get excited about 350 jobs in Litchfield, of all places, better known as a woodsy weekend retreat for writers and celebrities.
(Though he's a Broadway veteran, Mr. Alexander has, after all, become much better known for his work on television).
The 48-year-old has few large-scale buildings to his name, after all, and is better known for his more experimental projects.
On an island better known for all-inclusive resorts than cool independent hotels, the Jack Sprat Shack, opening in late October, is a departure from the Caribbean norm.
