To view Wharton's fiction as strait-laced, however, is to miss the elephant in the room.

ECONOMIST: Literary biography

The strait-laced Hobbit is tapped by the wizard Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen) for an adventure.

FORBES: Review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected, But Very Welcome, Journey

Strait-laced Omaha, which has no casino gambling, pays many of the social costs of having casinos just across the Missouri river in Council Bluffs, Iowa, while sharing none of the tax revenues.

ECONOMIST: Gambling��s critics