That his future was even in question was a startling sign of how badly his once-promising career has eroded.
Now civic leaders hope that glitz and glamour can revive it.The most startling sign of this improbable ambition is an expensive art gallery.
For the once-conservative Fourth Circuit, a decision to side with a plaintiff over a police officer in a legally ambiguous dispute was a startling sign of change.
He pointed to the company's newest development, a two-tower complex called Emerald Green, as "the most startling sign of improvement".
One startling sign of modernity was the blackboard outside a bungalow announcing "Piège à Hong Kong" starring Jean-Claude Van Damme (television inside, kerosene-driven generator out back).
It is a startling sign of the pain that the Great Recession is inflicting, and it is largely missed by the official, oft-repeated statistics on unemployment.
The most startling sign of Hamburg's confidence is a $10 billion development called Harbor City, planned on about 250 acres south of the city center where old dockland warehouses now stand.
The most startling sign of this so far (and judging by the whooping response I got when I tweeted the news, the most overwhelmingly welcome) is that in the autumn Maxine Peake will star as Hamlet.
