For days, weeks even, rumors, broad hints, anonymous confirmations and not-quite-official pronouncements have ricocheted across the Internet that Ms. Streisand — Brooklyn's favorite daughter of song, Williamsburg émigré, Erasmus Hall High School alumna — would give a concert at the new Barclays Center arena at Atlantic Yards.
A broad blacklist was still only a rumor, but after two years of relative quiet, another noisy, accusatory period was clearly approaching.
Soon the fear spreads to Wall Street, where the biggest banks fight off rumors of insolvency amid a broader economic panic, and Washington is forced to step in.
The timing and prevalence of these rumors have been linked to broader misconceptions of astronomy, particularly to doomsday predictions relating to the Mayan calendar.
Plus, rumors persist that Apple could eventually make a broader play for iTunes-powered mobile payments, and this ability to reload would definitely help with that.
From the Internet and from the rumor mill, however, many urban Chinese know at least the broad outlines of the cases.
The rumors in the nation of 30 million people highlight a broader, looming political quandary in former Soviet states from Russia to Tajikistan, where the absence of real elections has meant that succession becomes an unpredictable, hair-raising event.
Friday's announcement confirms widespread rumors throughout the personal computer industry that the investigation was broader than Microsoft had initially revealed.
Rumors about troubled hedge funds like Atticus Capital have unsettled the broader markets.
The most intense speculation centers on Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, whose rumored retirement would reconfigure the war team and perhaps lead to a broader reshuffling of Bush's national security team.
