In 1959 the novelist C P Snow had used his Rede Lecture to claim that British social and political elites were dominated by "natural Luddites", whose ignorance of science and engineering made them singularly unfit to govern a world in which technology was becoming ever more important.
All of which made them singularly attractive as a plot device.
Instead we get the old play with distracting moments of odd comedy and with characters wise-cracking in current cliches that make them seem singularly vacant.
Disney doesn't help itself when headlines emerge about its attempts to glam up much-loved Pixar characters such as Brave's singularly tomboyish Princess Merida, to make them fit the more traditional (for which read icky and cheap) image of a "Disney princess".
"As a fan, watching TV: Never make anyone an alcoholic, raped, never make them molested because when all is said and done their character becomes singularly about being that.
She not merely made many of her own clothes but sewed professionally for a Marimekko fabric store, making them dresses out of that material, which is singularly challenging, due to its large patterns.
In today's world, most bands attempt to search for, and lay claim to, a sound that is original and singularly their own -- something unique that makes them stand out from the zillions of other bands.
Such failings were hardly unprecedented in a leader, but it was the singularly autocratic nature of the Johnson Presidency which made them so troubling, Rovere continued, and bred the suspicion that policy might be driven by personal pique and obsession.
Populated almost exclusively by "celebrities" from TV shows that made them celebrities for not being celebrities to begin with, Celebrity Big Brother – just started on Channel 5 – is a singularly unattractive viewing proposition.
Of course, that does not make him singularly responsible for the wrongs done to them.
Ms. Newitz, however, was not sympathetic to Mr. Cameron, who wanted to make a singularly ambitious film, and may have gotten his wish.
