There is something admirable about a clever, witty and broadly-read essayist like Adam Gopnik's bold attempt to gather disparate strands of art, literature and cultural commentary to make a statement about the human condition.
Then we introduce a healer, Dr. Zhao, who not only wears many hats but embodies and institutionalizes Zhuang nationality medicine as a mixture of forms, which he capably gathers from strands of tradition, market opportunities, and elements of legal mediation.
It gathers sonic strands she helped weave into the pop mainstream.
Rolling Stone magazine's Tom Moon cited it as "one of the most emotionally raw albums of the year" and wrote that it "gathers musical strands from all over the pop universe into unadorned, remarkably intimate stream-of-consciousness musings on love, money and responsibility".
The Great American Novel is something different; it signifies a belief in literature as all-encompassing, as able to gather the diverse strands of an inexplicable and unruly nation, and make sense of them in a single work.
Gather all the strands together and pick out another color for your next swirl.
Just use your fork to gather a few strands at a time and separate them from the rest of the spaghetti before winding.
We are left wishing Brooks had found a less obtrusive way to gather up the many strands of her narrative.
Often, as I brushed through my hair and strands would gather in the brush, she would shake her head and say, "It's falling out!
