Today banks across the region look to the consumer as their source of future profits and try to ply him with credit cards, mortgages, car loans and unsecured credit.

ECONOMIST: Consumer finance is Asian banks' new thing

Every time the elevator halted and the door opened I held my breath, afraid the person joining me on the ride had seen the screwup and would ply me with questions.

CNN: Robin Meade talks anxiety and her road to self-confidence

But, as with bartenders who continue to ply drunken patrons with drinks, the Federal Reserve bears a heavy responsibility for creating loads of excess capital in the first place and the Bush White House for winking and nodding while the dollar was being debased.

FORBES: Bush's Big Boo-Boo

After a half century of revolution, the island state remains an economic wreck, locked in a time warp in which vintage 1950s American automobiles ply streets filled with weathered buildings unfamiliar with basic maintenance.

FORBES: With Hugo Chavez Dead, Will Chavismo Also Die?

If the Ospreys did manage to entice Haskell to the Liberty Stadium it would be a rarity, with very few current England internationals having chosen to ply their trade on the other side of the Severn Bridge.

BBC: Ospreys eye shock Haskell switch

As the pickpocket defies a law-and-order campaign to ply his trade, he despairs of his solitude and takes up with a call girl (Hao Hongjian), whose own deceptions are a sign of the times.

NEWYORKER: Pickpocket (Xiao Wu)

Some 63% of people support the idea of introducing "tolerance zones" - where prostitutes could ply their trade without fear of prosecution - as the best method of cleaning up residential areas with a kerb-crawling problem.

BBC: News | UK | Prostitution survey calls for licensing