The empirical analysis reveals that S&P required higher standards to assign a rating similar to the one assigned by A.M. Best and that higher-than-average quality insurers in each rating category of A.M. Best chose to receive a second rating from S&P.
It was an anomaly, for our other starters were first rate, from al dente fresh asparagus in a delicate vinaigrette and the gemelli pasta in a lively prosciutto-five-nut pesto bath to the potato-goat cheese gratinée with kalamata olives, a puffy tart as pretty to look at as to consume.
Everything about this performance is first rate – from Mark Wigglesworth's beautifully detailed and expansive conducting, through Alfie Boe's Kudriash, Anna Grevelius's Varvara and Clive Bayley's Dikoy to the leading roles, with Racette and Skelton counterpointed with Susan Bickley's Kabanicha, as monstrous of character as of coiffeur.
It is not enough to quote John F. Kennedy with our words, and then insult the memory of John F. Kennedy with second rate deeds, from second rate minds, reading second rate words, written by second rate hacks, in a nation where people hunger to be called again to great and noble deeds not because they are easy, because they are hard.
"The American military may be first-rate from the air, but we're not prepared for street fighting," he said.
It redresses some of the forces of deference which bolster the conceit of the second-rate; it also prevents the first-rate from going mad with conceit".
Ideally, they separate the first-rate from the duds, elevate taste and present the achievements of civilization at their shining best.
On my most recent visit, entrees were uniformly first-rate, from seared magret, with sweet potato purée and braised greens, to fork-tender braised Angus short ribs with mashed potatoes, morel mushroom ragout and chanterelle mushroom jus.
Walt Spangler's scenic design is varied, often splashy and absolutely first-rate, from the ordinary subway car to his kinder, gentler Times Square and to the nighttime suggestion of a Coney Island roller coaster sparkling with lights.
But all the acting is first-rate, from Harry Hasden-Patricia Patricia's secretly terrified husband to Clive Wood as the bluff squadron leader who, in one of the play's few overtly patriotic lines, says: "My God, we do owe these boys something, you know".
