Following a segment about a competition, Jack Cafferty, a CNN anchor, once scoffed: "That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen.

She is proud to report that her university, which once scoffed at her business, has asked her to design its Web page.

Even intellectuals, who once scoffed, have discovered that soccer is an area for exhilarating debate.

Natural gas, once scoffed at by oil companies as a nuisance when found alongside reserves of oil, is also thought to be more plentiful than oil.

Alternative pain treatments that doctors once scoffed at are now standard at many pain centers.

Americans who once scoffed at paunchy golfers in strident outfits are finding that the game offers some contemporary attributes: a serene setting, low-impact exercise and a matchless opportunity for networking.

These fans once scoffed at the attempts by the record industry and others to create such subscription services, in which users pay monthly fees for access to large online music libraries.

Sather announced a change in course last night, heralding "a new philosophy" and "a new attitude" - a rebuilding process at which he once scoffed.

Embracing an approach to computing it once scoffed at, Microsoft unveiled a strategy today that will increasingly move its business away from the personal computer the company has championed since the mid-1970's.