Dickinson's iconography of suffering, with its sexualized pleasure-pain, Catholicizes austere American Protestantism.

Instinct and a brash and breezy agak agak style is the way men occasional chefs, not professional ones cook.

There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs,[…], and all these articles[…] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.

For a while on “Breakthrough,” as with Ms. Caillat’s debut album, “Coco,” it appears as if she’s content to remain polite, an unfussy swooner.