Juniors like Daniel and Alice are encouraged to engage in a version of what Jay Touger calls "six degrees of separation," in which the brother of the father of a friend of a friend might know someone who runs a laboratory in Brooklyn or Manhattan and might be approached to work as a mentor.
Everything, it seems, hangs on the two people who sit behind a closed door, engaging in a corrective version of intimacy.
During Monday night's debate in Myrtle Beach, Mitt Romney seemed to be engaging in a political version of the strategy, avoiding direct confrontation with his opponents while giving evasive answers on issues ranging from his tax returns to the role of "Super PACs".
Enlisted by a consortium of power companies, consultants, the Department of Energy, the Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle City Light, Mr. Thompson and about 300 people were paid $40 each to spend an evening engaged in a civic version of the kind of debate that has taken place in households for some time now: what kind of light do you prefer: old and yellowy or a new and cool white?
And Mr. Olbermann not only gave airtime on Oct. 28 to Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, he engaged in a new version of checkbook journalism that same day, contributing $2,400 to Mr. Grijalva's campaign, according to Politico, which broke the original story on Mr. Olbermann's contributions.
On September 9th last year, Stevens engaged in a classic version of advocacy-by-interrogation during the argument of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
With the arrival of each instalment, the impression that Simpson is engaged in a literary version of This Is England, issuing epochal bulletins for the baby boomer generation, intensifies.
If a candidate receives the nod from fewer than fifteen per cent of those present, the people who supported him engage in a political version of musical chairs, crossing the room to choose another candidate, or declaring themselves undecided, or just leaving.
The debate over HFCs is complicated because, for years now, nations have been engaged in a chemical version of musical chairs.
It's official: the administration that once scorned nation-building now says that it's engaged in a modern version of the Marshall Plan.
