Almost as quickly as the lead was built, however, it was squandered.
"Land here is a precious resource, and yet it is squandered".
Mitchell writes about emotional information: who controls it, and how it is squandered or hoarded, withheld or weaponized.
Perhaps it was squandered, in a larger artistic sense, but it still makes for captivating, and oddly reassuring, reading — it's a relief to know that, even if your life were more glamorous, you wouldn't necessarily be any happier.
Money that could, and should, have been used to add value to society was not invested; it was squandered as surely as if the parties had wagered on a horse race.
First, McNaughton's cross to Whelan at the back post presented Aberdeen with a goalscoring opportunity, but it was squandered when the striker shot across the face of goal.
"He is mercurial, got all this talent but somehow it's squandered and lost," Hill told London's Evening Standard.
Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion, said recently that Hamilton, 28, "has all the talent but somehow it's squandered and lost".
A chance had opened up for Everton in this season's FA Cup but it was squandered quite spectacularly - and how Goodison Park, or at least those supporters still inside a rapidly deserting stadium at the final whistle, let Moyes and his players know it.
