The first chapter begins with Byrne cycling aimlessly around Niagra Falls, Buffalo, relaying his casual thoughts on sub-standard town planning and the life of local hero and Kodak founder George Eastman.
Civil libertarians will doubtless complain that by imposing nicotine-or laundry-based standards, towns and co-op boards are paving the way for related bans on perfume, moth balls, cat litter, even body odor and bad hair.
Later investigations by the Crown would suggest that some of the monies raised in these murage grants had been misspent, however, contributing to the poor standard of town defences, which included large gaps in the walled circuit.
Small even by Sonoma County's modest population standards, the town seems discomfited by things that herald growth and change.
Mr. Schneider, the Long Branch mayor, said that without a state standard, some towns would go too far in keeping people out, but that a one-size-fits-all rule was unworkable.
While the Hugheses would not provide a total for their "epic affair," they said they absorbed about $5,000 for items above and beyond what they would have faced at a standard in-town site in their part of the country.
Since 25 miles an hour is the standard in-town speed limit in New Jersey, and since few obey it perfectly, the second ticket seemed, at least to Mr. Torricelli, akin to piling on a guy who's already down.
Like "Irma Voth," it's a sly, humorous but still distressing evocation of a young Mennonite's predicament, which is your standard small-town adolescent crisis magnified by a thousand -- depression thick in the air, attempts to navigate any aspect of one's life systematically quashed, shame heaped upon any nonconformist behavior.
The quakes, powerful by Midwestern standards, shook towns about an hour's drive northeast of Oklahoma City.
Crowning the main retail structure will be that standard feature of town centers past, a clock tower.
In desperation, after repeated failed attempts to conjure up the missing selection, I opt to get a standard ride into town in the traditional Friday evening manner: alone.
