I am a third generation Cornellian, Class of '83, and I can tell you that we have not always lived up to the ideals of this phrase, but these ideals remain the guideposts for what we do everyday.
On the other hand, William Powell, who plays George Wilson, would have made an ideal Gatsby (the phrase "old sport" would roll off his tongue like "hello," though, since it's a silent movie, that aptitude is irrelevant).
To the firm, I was the "ideal worker" — a phrase sociologists use to describe a problematic archetype of a fully committed employee with no personal "entanglements". I was single with no children, and had almost unlimited capacity for all things related to work.
If you have (any) kind of social media presence, are in FB groups or have learned about business at all during your entrepreneurial journey, then I'm sure you've heard the phrase "ideal client".
In an ideal world most phrases would be uttered by Brian Blessed in animal skin.
It is anchored on the ideal focus of the phrase.
Instead we often focus on forging ahead, ignoring the regrets we may feel ("No regrets!" being a familiar phrase and ideal), pretending them "away," making do and moving on, even while we may be tripping up over unacknowledged regrets and all the feelings piled on top of or buried under them.
Mr. Palmer proved an ideal colleague, his elegant phrasing and warmly supple, clear tone complementing the fine playing of the strings in the Mozart.
His playing sometimes sounded rather clinical by comparison with the warmer quality of the orchestra, from which Mr. Oberstein elicited sharply etched phrasing, an ideal buoyancy and mostly clean playing.
Based on the in-person interviews, it appeared that this issue was placed between the ideal world scenario (complete phrases) and reality (practitioners still commonly use acronyms).
