When Fame is the title of a musical, Notorious the stage name of a rapper, and Celebrity the name of a cruise line (or a hair salon) we have moved into territory where these terms of approbation and rebuke have become brands. The words themselves, rather than anything or anyone they might designate, have become—to employ a recent coinage—famesque.

Has anybody seen a dog dyed dark green / […] / And designer jeans with appliques on it?

In many respects the historian and diplomat, Yakovlev, is the U.S.S.R.’s major Canadianist, and Gorbachev his most prominent pupil.

He could not long outdistance such a runner as the Bishop, whose tremendous strides would surely overhaul him in the end.