If so, Metsu, an artist whose fame once exceeded Vermeer's, did his patron proud.
He once exceeded 90mph, even though he always looked slower than the impressive Boyd Rankin.
Although the debt once exceeded $3 million, associates say it is now below $500,000.
Bird life, once exceeding 100 species in the valley, has been reduced dramatically.
The capitalization of Palm, which once exceeded that of Ford Motor, has buckled with the collapsing high-technology bubble.
The former investor said he understood that the fund once exceeded $80 million, before investment declines and withdrawals.
Mr. Minkow claimed that ZZZZ Best had 1,300 employees, and he took the company public — its market value once exceeded $300 million.
The number of manufacturing jobs in the city, which once exceeded 850,000, fell below 100,000 in recent months, according to statistics compiled by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Social Democrats' membership, which once exceeded one million, has dropped to 530,000, for the first time lower than Mrs. Merkel's conservatives.
The number of breeding pairs, which once exceeded 140,000 in the late 1950s, fell to 69,000 in 1980 and down to just over 25,000 by 2009.
