Philadelphia (CNN) -- Darryl Williams and Benjamin Kline were shivering before the speech even started, their black umbrella no match for the steady rain and brisk Philadelphia wind.

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"She was a pretty unique prime minister who achieved a great deal she brought back the self-esteem and confidence of the United Kingdom, " said Keith Batt, a 75-year-old retired Royal Air Force captain, who was strolling up and down Fleet Street, wearing a bowler hat and toting a large black umbrella, as he looked for a place to glimpse the procession.

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Mr. Steely White, who cycled up to Barclays jauntily holding an open umbrella and riding a black matte Dutch commuter bike whose weight he estimated at about 50 pounds, said the valet service has been a hit in other bike-friendly locales.

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Ten minutes later he walks out from behind a row of bushes, a stooped figure with his head down, wearing large black galoshes and holding a closed umbrella at his side while the rain pours down onto a limp fishing hat.

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Albert is a waiter in an upmarket Dublin hotel, and the uniform adds starch to her otherworldliness: grief-black suit and tie, snowy shirt, and, for outdoors, a rolled umbrella and an ill-fitting bowler hat.

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The man, wearing a black overcoat, approached the bus purposefully in heavy morning snow as soldiers were boarding, set down his umbrella and went under the chassis as if to fix something, according to a witness.

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