It seemed perfectly ordinary then that its members, traditionalists all, might gather for a Christmas Eve dinner inside an embassy lost in time.
All that's required today, you might gather, is a smidgen of fame (or infamy) and a total disregard for your dignity.
It's usually best to avoid the throngs of people that might gather around a particularly vivid display of flowers, since equally satisfying vistas can be found in many less-congested areas, especially on remote roads off the Interstate.
In the message, dated early Tuesday afternoon, Luke Bernstein, coalitions coordinator for the Bush campaign in Pennsylvania, wrote: "The Bush-Cheney '04 national headquarters in Virginia has asked us to identify 1,600 'Friendly Congregations' in Pennsylvania where voters friendly to President Bush might gather on a regular basis".
Five or six or eight audience members might gather at a particular station, all of them scattered throughout the space.
An entire industry has emerged in response to the Title IX mandate to help universities comply: Some schools host hour-long orientation programs like "Sex Signals," in which an entire freshman class might gather together in an auditorium for a comedic-style performance about sexual assault, and a number of new smartphone apps like We-Consent and SaSie are also on the market.
"When it does not rain the playground stays dry, but when it rains the parking lot floods the playground," five fifth graders wrote on a science test to explain how a child might gather evidence of whether a parking lot caused flooding on a playground.
It is on occasions such as these that sport comes into its own, providing a focal point around which we might gather to demonstrate a spirit that will not be cowed by the violence of the thug.
As you might gather, it's an event that aims to provide something a little more special than your average music festival.
While an ASIC might gather enough volume in an all-purpose Ethernet switch with formulaic functions, it is unlikely to fill all the multifarious slots, blades and interfaces on the rocky and protean shores of networks, where legacies cling and novelties proliferate with the favored protocol of the month contests or with the new virus remedy or encapsulation scheme.
