(If we are listening to a joke for the second time, of course, there is a sense in which we expect the incongruous punch line, but it still violates our ordinary expectations).
Like every dog hero, Wizard and Cassius surpass the ordinary expectations of dogs as chattel or faithful, trusted servants.
Before the deliberative poll, the results tracked ordinary expectations: Labour's share of the representative sample was 52%; the Tories 29%; and the Lib Dems 13%.
"In marriage we are expected to do our fair share when it comes to housework, child care and being faithful, but generosity is going above and beyond the ordinary expectations with small acts of service and making an extra effort to be affectionate," explains the University of Virgnia's W. Bradford Wilcox, who led the research.
Gawker's dump of 950 pages of documents detailing aspects of Mitt Romney's investments shout out one big truth: that Mitt Romney is not just super-wealthy, but that his wealth is nurtured through a thicket of financial instruments that surpass ordinary expectations of wealth.
The continuum runs from strict obligation (grounded in the core norms of beneficence in ordinary morality) through weaker obligations (the outer periphery of ordinary expectations of persons, such as great conscientiousness in attending to a friend's welfare) and on to the domain of the morally nonrequired and exceptionally virtuous.
The scene is marvellous precisely because it borders on the unbelievable, rises confidently above the ordinary, confounds expectation.
And ordinary Cubans' expectations will grow accordingly.
Although professional forecasters' expectations of future inflation have stabilised, the proportion of ordinary folk expecting higher prices has risen.
These are ordinary, not great expectations.
