21.   Badu said his first year without basketball allowed him to ease anonymously into university life at Maryland.

22.   Bassett had known him for years without ever contemplating romantic involvement.

23.   Baseball never has gone through a year without ending a season on the playing field so nobody knows what lies in the great beyond.

24.   Barely a month has gone by this year without some sort of strike.

25.   Before the Northridge earthquake, many insurers had gone for years without changing prices or updating total exposure estimates while whole new communities sprang up in earthquake zones.

26.   Berra recalled that he worked with Scott for years without a contract.

27.   Before Saturday, Gordon had gone more than a year without blowing a save.

28.   A good tile surface should last for many years without problems.

29.   A handful of tinny live recordings, mostly with Italian orchestras, have circulated for years without providing anything like a full or consistent picture of the maestro.

30.   A franchise that had never before gone more than four consecutive years without a winning record is about to absorb its eighth straight losing season.