Ernst & Young, the accounting firm, boasts a 25-member competitive intelligence arm.
But mostly I remember her at her computer well past 10 p.m., stealing the last hours of the day to do administrative work for some volunteer project she'd been drawn into or for the 60-member competitive swimming club that she and Dad had founded and that she ran largely by herself.
"The members are competitive," he said.
Each year the orchestra, which was founded in 1969, draws new members from competitive auditions.
I ask if cast members are competitive about storylines, and she replies, rather unconvincingly, "I don't think so".
The North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA) not only almost tripled American trade with Mexico and nearly doubled its trade with Canada, but also made all three members more competitive internationally.
"We are pleased to offer our A.B.A. members a competitive e-book retailing solution uniquely crafted to meet the needs of independent booksellers and their customers," Oren Teicher, the chief executive of the American Booksellers Association, said in a statement.
Though the Republicans have a supermajority in the House, it will still be tough for them to draw enough safe G.O.P. districts to protect all of their members from competitive elections in 2012.
"When people get laid off around here, they take up another sport; it's better than moping at home," said Annette Geddes, who works at the Lithgow Workmens Club, where the members play competitive snooker.
Mr. Salter is a master at delineating the pressures, the rejections, the mockery and the cruelty that spin within the male community; especially within a male community whose members are competitive, cliquish and defensive and live with a heightened possibility of death.
