Mr. Cayne remains devastated by Bear's precipitous end, say people who know him, and is keeping a low profile.
In the early nineties, the collapse of the Soviet Union brought a precipitous end to Cuba's subsidies, and the economy imploded.
(Is it an accident that two songs include Christmas imagery?) Mr. Merritt sang one of these, the Brian Wilsonesque ballad "I Don't Know What to Say," with deadpan glumness, right up to the song's precipitous end.
And if his demise didn't bring a precipitous end to his network of associates I deemed the boys' club, it would certainly spell change: His blend of benevolence and tyranny was unparalleled in his associates.
At a time when Republican presidential contenders have been portraying the Democratic Party as the face of weakness in a dangerous world, Democrats are wary of supporting a bill that could be portrayed as cutting off money for the troops or forcing a precipitous end to the conflict.
The operon model of Jacob and Monod marked thus the precipitous end of the simple, informational concept of the molecular gene.
But when I followed the lower ridges, trying to reduce my elevation, I reached sickeningly precipitous dead ends.
