He has the same laconic, down-to-earth chat that the Beatles had when people would ask them lofty questions.

For two decades, Forbes has kept track of the fantabulously wealthy, a public service that spares us an onerous chore and frees us for loftier questions of the day, like how is it that Marvel Entertainment could bump off Captain America.

Mr. Thomas takes on some lofty questions: What is heroic about the music?

Tolstoy gets to the lofty questions by means of his unfailingly human details; Thackara's lofty and far less original questions manipulate the details.

While the abortion debate focuses mostly on lofty constitutional questions argued out in Washington, the daily realities for women seeking to end their pregnancies are often defined through smaller skirmishes in states like Nebraska.

A debate that blends lofty questions of religious freedom and cultural heritage with nuts-and-bolts worries about the cost of replacing stained-glass windows and feeding the poor is bedeviling New York City, and pitting some powerful political forces against one another.

But it appears from the accumulating court papers that where Macmillan sees a mundane commercial dispute, the council sees loftier questions of intellectual property and high scholarly standards.

Second, the Yale party line continues, the school challenges students with lofty questions of public policy and service to the commonweal rather than dry-as-dust questions suitable for practicing lawyers.

She regarded it as an occasion for high-toned conversation, and plied her father with lofty questions about "conditions."

Along with the lofty questions posed by "The Gates" (Is it art?