A close, sympathetic observer's data make this a profoundly unsilly question.

Mr. Herzog may be a sympathetic observer, but he is no proselytizer.

And yet as he himself observes, he must also remain an outsider, a sympathetic observer of what is happening to other people.

"This life is part of a much larger process," says another sympathetic observer.

To which other sympathetic observers might add words like excruciating, poignant, sad.

Lewisham was not aware that the waterproof collar had found a sympathetic observer.

When I reported the story for this newspaper, I got to write it as just a sympathetic observer.

But even some sympathetic observers are skeptical about attempts to define such a sprawling market.

The grounds for working-class discontent struck even the least sympathetic observer.

She is also an indefatigably curious, skeptical and sympathetic observer.