1.   Readers may recall, indeed find it difficult to forget, that a couple of years back Drum Major Jones compiled the Conservative Celebrity Cookbook.

2.   And that was a few years back, too.

3.   A few years back, a dental researcher was engaged in an international study of tooth decay.

4.   A couple of years back the ice got so thick on the tower that it crushed the shack holding the thermometers.

5.   A couple of years back, there was a brief fashion for historical hypotheticals.

6.   A few years back, Manning had a different view about such things.

7.   A couple of years back I returned to a different Britain to live.

8.   A few years back, Medals of Honor were belatedly awarded to African-American soldiers from World War II.

9.   For example, a few years back six young fellows wanted to bicycle from San Diego to Washington, D.C. Bicycling is conventional.

10.   For example, there was the famous Halloween canoe ride a couple of years back, which Martha immortalized on the cover of her magazine.