The approach was vintage Lamar Alexander - understated, unaffected, purposeful and quietly subversive.

His horoscope reveals him as witty, quietly subversive, and having lofty intentions.

Ms. Dishon and others succeeded over the years in instituting small, quietly subversive changes: a de-emphasis of wedding announcements or an interview with a black entertainer.

A modern-dance choreographer with an unmistakable voice, Ms. Garfield has moved from goofiness to a more quietly subversive irony in recent years.

In her quietly subversive way, Ms. Pidgeon seems to enjoy debunking myths, like the image of her husband as a cigar-smoking, poker-playing "man's man."

As it happened, the last lyrics to drift out over the audience that day were the most quietly subversive.

"A Seahorse Year" succeeds in being both deeply satisfying and quietly subversive.

But there's often a quietly subversive intelligence at work that allows some fresh, if mild, insights into familiar standards, even when the desires to entertain and to explore are at odds.

A poem's relation to social change is quietly subversive.

In Puryear's quietly subversive sculptural world, separatist notions of any kind are inconceivable and anachronistic.