Bergman treats their impossible virtuousness as a species of screwball-comedy idiosyncrasy, and makes us believe in them.

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Cowgill's idiosyncrasy not only makes him the solution to a trivia question and a curiosity to his teammates.

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Mr. Arroyo's Mystic Lamb fuses untrammeled, even indulgent, idiosyncrasy with heartfelt homage.

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In a prospective June runoff, Colombian voters will very likely be asked to choose between proven centrist experience and idealized leftist idiosyncrasy.

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And then there's the goal celebration that has earned him the nickname of the Little Aeroplane, an idiosyncrasy first launched at Genoa after a spell on the sidelines.

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The other is the idiosyncrasy of Italy's electoral system.

ECONOMIST: Italy's election

The predictable is leavened with notes of idiosyncrasy: a pea-shoot-and-watermelon-radish salad provides just the right edge of tartness to the greasier offerings, as does a beautifully balanced pickle garnish sweet with a little chile that accompanies several dishes.

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"Well, that's absurd, because in winter it's cold and you can't go around naked, " Armani says, rolling his R s the French way, which in Italian is a slight idiosyncrasy of speech that exudes an air of aristocracy.

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Finalists: "Rapture, Blister, Burn, " by Gina Gionfriddo, a searing comedy that examines the psyches of two women in midlife as they ruefully question the differing choices they have made, and "4000 Miles, " by Amy Herzog, a drama that shows acute understanding of human idiosyncrasy as a spiky 91-year-old locks horns with her rudderless 21-year-old grandson who shows up at her Greenwich Village apartment after a disastrous cross-country bike trip.

WSJ: 2013 Pulitzer winners in journalism and arts