1.   Because the runners cooperated and because the downtown area was kept clear until they were pointed toward their chutes, the start went off without any glitches.

2.   Stone drinks, snorts lines of coke, starts going downhill in her bravest performance yet.

3.   The formal start of negotiations went ahead, meanwhile, despite the absence of David Trimble, who leads the largest party in Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionists.

4.   The start went smoothly, but then the problems set in.

5.   On the defensive line, Derrick Chambers, Buck Gurley, Gerard Warren and Alex Brown had eight starts among them going into the season.

6.   The start of repairs went smoothly after a two-hour delay caused by two separate incidents involving the leaking spacesuit and a leaking hatch.

7.   The start of repairs went smoothly and faster than expected after a two-hour delay caused by two separate incidents involving the leaking spacesuit and a leaking hatch.

8.   UNHCR workers will start going tent-to-tent Tuesday to inform the refugees that they should move on.

9.   Maybe if the first start would have gone I would have not run such a calm race.