Specifically this place is Manhattan, which McQueen depicts as a hell of sterile offices, anonymous apartments and desperate pick-up joints, though it may conceivably refer to the world at large.
Most reporters, desperate to pick the brains of the president's top strategists, grudgingly agree.
It ends with the poet "desperate to pick out/Your hands, tiny in all that air, applauding".
In "My Robot Baby" the intensity of a driven would-be mother (Tamlyn Tomita), desperate to pick up parenting skills by caring for a robot baby so she can qualify for adoption, is easily the most compelling element in the vignettes.
Krylova's daughters, five and 11, zoom in and out of the sitting room, leaning over the sofa to whisper to their mother, desperate to pick bits of icing off the enormous and unusual cake she has had made for her husband's birthday – decorated with a large marzipan model of her, instantly recognisable with flowing blonde hair and cheekbones, perched on the edge of the cake, next to a winged angel.
Hearts are desperate to pick up points to avoid the possibility of being relegated from the Scottish Premiership when they meet Edinburgh rivals Hibernian at Tynecastle at the end of the month.
Desperate Housewives picks up where the first series left off, thus: Mike gets home to find Zach holding Susan hostage; Bree has to contend with Rex's mother, Phyllis, when she arrives over his funeral; meanwhile, a guilty Gabrielle starts visiting Carlos in jail.
Johnson was doing his part while his teammates continued their desperate attempts to pick Colorado's strongbox in goal, Patrick Roy.
Greed, fear and a desperate rush to pick the next big winner are all adding fuel to the fire that is Silicon Valley's resurgence.
This reinforced a recurring theme throughout the year, namely the party's desperate need to pick up more northern seats if it is to entertain any hope of an outright majority at the next election.
