The inspired stroke of telling Othello that he has been witness to one of Casio's incriminatingly erotic dreams is here popped into Iago's head because Casio does, at one point, actually hug him in his sleep.

In an inspired stroke a couple of years ago, it invited the venerable Swiss musical patron Paul Sacher to conduct the New York Chamber Symphony in masterpieces of his own commissioning.

It is an inspired stroke.

Mr. Kappers, in an inspired stroke, travels to places Mr. Lomax visited during a long career of collecting the world's folk music on tape.

In an inspired stroke, Mailer separates his paragraphs with a double space, making them the typographical equivalent of Gilmore's Utah County, where "the desert was at the end of every street."

Michael Stewart Allen is an inspired stroke of casting here, adroitly mixing braggadocio and bluntness, hamhandedness and heart.

Knifing the last partisan was an inspired stroke.

Mr. Sessa's inspired stroke is to tackle almost nothing head-on.

A lineup of five black "egg shell" goblets, with slitted hollow stems so that light shows through, is an inspired stroke.

The choice of Zoe Baird to be Attorney General is the most inspired stroke of Bill Clinton's Cabinet-making.