Table settings included Colonial-style silverware and, for a contrasting sense of playfulness, loose bouquets of American flowers, reminiscent of the prairie white garden roses, blue hydrangea, star-shaped tweedia, thistle.

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The truest-to-life candidate might be the Berlaymont, a large star-shaped building that used to serve as the commission's headquarters until it was evacuated because of an asbestos scare.

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The Pasta Shoppe, a Nashville mill, sells pasta shaped like crabs, the Star of David, and 65 college mascots.

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It is displayed on the 60th floor of a five-star hotel nicknamed the Farmer's Apartments that is topped with a golf-ball-shaped room.

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