Why the estimable Mr. MacNeil and Mr. Lehrer should have sat still for a public ego massage is perplexing.

The benefits were not entirely confined to ego massage.

Because it's there, because it's a challenge, because it offers a chance for "minor celebrity, career advancement, ego massage."

He was still preaching, but now mixing it with an ego massage.

Of course for some Everesters myriad other, less virtuous, motives came into play, as well: minor celebrity, career advancement, ego massage, ordinary bragging rights, filthy lucre.

No the increase in these art competitions is there more as an ego massage for the jury or the sponsor, it is not there for art or the artist.

But her ego massages are never X- or even R-rated.

Epidemic middle-age craziness is probably worse within the confines of the Capitol, he believes, with many members separated from their families and open to the lure of a nice ego massage.

And there's also the cheap ego massage of just having people come up and recognizing you, which is very nice when you're young but gets progressively more boring.