1.   Before Becker and Graf came on the scene, Germans admired their celebrities from a polite distance.

2.   A wall kept us at a polite distance.

3.   But he does so by maintaining a firm, polite distance from the character.

4.   The fog kept a polite distance.

5.   They remain at a polite distance, out of the rain, and then come down to feed.

6.   We observe the events from a polite distance, rather than being plunged into the swirl of decadent Jazz Age high life.

7.   Such awkward living arrangements may help explain the polite distance St. Petersburg residents maintain in all but their closest relationships, Lurye argued.