To add to her misfortunes, Mr. Marechal occupied the small vista hitherto allowed to terminate in her profile, with an attitude. Sitting opposite a pier-glass has its disadvantages; however, when things come to the worst, they mend.

“That boy’s got butterfingers,” Connor went on. “That’s twice he’s dropped a tool. He’s got no place on a construction site.”

People from Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and Syracuse are upstaters.

To say that the lithosphere floats on top of the asthenosphere suggests a degree of easy buoyancy that isn't quite right.