They could be the lighter side of their father's new "civility"; they could represent the easygoing fun-loving beer-swigging spirit that has vanished in his stiff old man's White House; they could be his wink at the audience while he panders to the rightwing.
That was the beginning of the year and, as we near its end, another sparkling 62-year-old has vanished into the dark: AA Gill, greatest newspaper columnist of a generation, brimming with beans and brilliance and wit in print, kind and gentle and wise in person.
She glances over at the bag lady, but the sweet old thing has vanished.
Because his old job has vanished, he has spent much of the last year looking for a similar one.
The system shifts to a new attractor only once the old one has vanished.
The facade of anti-Americanism, maintained for seven decades by the old ruling party, has vanished.
The old Korn crunch has vanished from songs like the final dirge, "Tearjerker" in which Mr. Davis croons, "I wish there was someone to love me".
Yes, much of the sport's old-time charm has vanished, but the experience of sliding on snow -- regardless of other resort trappings -- just keeps getting better.
That's me, with a week-old harbor seal pup whose mother has vanished, leaving him stranded and hungry.
A 10-year-old boy with jaw cancer who needs urgent surgery has vanished, a High Court Judge has said.
