Word: warp
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...stretch pants that won't develop baggy knees after one day's wear. American metal skis that will last for years now cost little more and will last for years now cost little more and will perform much better than Austrian woods which are liable to break or warp. In short, the initial investment in ski equipment has been reduced to a reasonable figure in recent years...
Nick encounters all manner of odd types in the army. He is linked to them all by the warp of a social fabric that Powell understands as well as any writer now working, and by the long arm of coincidence, which Powell nudges more shamelessly than any novelist since Dickens. When a character in The Valley of Bones moves, another character inevitably twitches at the end of a fictional thread that may stretch all the way back to A Question of Upbringing, the first in his series. Nick has a casual conversation with a fellow officer, and a memory floats...
...spray antistatic chemicals on the rug. But the available antistatic sprays, which are similar to preparations for neutralizing phonograph records, are only temporarily effective and tend to leave a tacky residue that makes them get dirty more easily. The third method is to weave copper wires into the warp and woof of the carpet and then ground the whole thing onto a convenient water or radiator pipe. Since this adds about $1 to the cost per yard, it is too expensive for most offices...
...this does not resolve the problem of General Education. Separately, the Western tradition and the teaching of science are very different approaches to General Education. But together they are the warp and woof of a program directed at contemporary Western civilisation...
Satisfaction is the warp of the social fabric. Everything else is woof...