But as construction nears and multimillion-dollar budgets are negotiated, the realities of engineering and financing may finally overtake the symbolic architectural gesture devised by Mr. Libeskind and embraced by Gov. George E. Pataki.

Then reality overtook him, and his spirits dropped.

Most recently, though, reality has overtaken Young and, in the space of six games and two weeks, he turned four Mets ninth-inning leads into losses.

When will the human reality of death overtake the political fictions we have maintained in the forlorn hope that we can negotiate with enemies who do not share our desire for peace?

A "different reality" has overtaken Time Inc., he told the Time-Life Alumni Society last spring, "with all its complexities and compromises, its ambiguities and trade-offs."

It has been frequently remarked how rapidly this media-made reality is overtaking the old.

Finally, a few years ago, Equitable executives realized that reality had overtaken their costly plans.

The reality that the Jets have playmaking receivers has overtaken the perception, roundly held in the preseason, that the Jets' receiving corps was among the weakest in the league.

The Commissioner observed that reality has overtaken the report's reference to India and Taiwan in the same breath.

Madam President, in the textile sector as in many others, harsh reality has overtaken and dispelled the illusions of a World Trade Organization that has been presented, untruthfully and demagogically, as fair and beneficial for all.