By mid-afternoon, much of the neighborhood had gathered in clusters, exchanging rumors that the Reagans, and perhaps even Mr. Gorbachev himself, were coming.

That brought moans from the assembled press, some of them with lenses as long as tank barrels, who mostly spent the time exchanging rumors or talking importantly into their many cellphones.

There was an atmosphere of unrest-not really panic or even alarm, just a host of unruly people milling, exchanging rumors, readying themselves for some unexpected action.

More than two hundred commoners of House Do'Urden milled about the great chapel, excitedly exchanging rumors of the coming events.

The people stay up all night, passing the time by exchanging increasingly implausible rumors about the imminent arrival and undoubted brutality of enormous numbers of troops.

At Grand Central, a growing crowd of idle passengers exchanged rumors about the nature of the trouble.

In the midafternoon silence, as survivors collected to exchange rumors, a woman approached Sapiyat and begged her to go to Mesayev Street.

He spent a lot of time in newsgroups exchanging gossip and rumors about upcoming films, eventually creating his own Web site as part of his Internet hobby.

After purchasing a computer in 1994, Knowles taught himself how to navigate the Internet and began frequenting newsgroups to exchange gossip and rumors with other fans about upcoming films.

Even some slightly embarrassed television executives could be heard venting their frustration over the lack of new shows and exchanging rumors of "lost" episodes.