101.  In a poor, sun-blasted village, Nafas encounters Tabib, an American Muslim providing the closest thing to medical care for miles around.

102.  In another direction, Scott Turow is the closest thing to a contemporary popular novelist that Benedict talks about.

103.  In any event, Graham left Los Angeles to become a world-famous preacher and the closest thing America has ever had to a national pastor.

104.  In fact, the closest thing to a villain in this story is you.

105.  In background and temperament, Levy may be the closest thing to a genuinely global record executive.

106.  In his heart of hearts, the darling creature is really just a hirsute little boy pining for the closest thing he knows to a mommy.

107.  In its precise ugliness, it may the closest thing to a sex scene that Spielberg has ever made and underscores the ease with which filmmakers can manipulate violence.

108.  In Atlanta, where we can garden virtually every month of the year, winter is the closest thing to down time that gardeners get.

109.  In the soaring, neo-Gothic National Cathedral, Mrs. Harriman was given the closest thing to a state funeral Washington has seen in years.

110.  In the intensity of his subjective identification with his characters, Strauss is the closest thing to a successor to Mozart.