On a recent day, Ontario resident Dennis Glassco sat in a mostly empty terminal waiting for a United flight to Houston, his belongings spread across a row of empty chairs.

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London 2012 chairman Lord Coe insisted Olympics venues were "stuffed" with sports fans, after a row about empty seats on Saturday.

BBC: London 2012: Team GB wins first Olympic medals

Anyone who has driven past a row of empty houses in the Irish countryside will realise that optimism can lead to wasteful investment.

ECONOMIST: Sometimes it helps if investors are gloomy

Then, despite the fact that the place was crawling with agents, you were directed to wait your turn in a row of empty chairs.

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The jars that served as my urinals were empty and aligned in a gleaming row.

NEWYORKER: Wakefield

Without even looking up, he underhanded the game ball into the third row of now-empty seats before descending into the dugout.

NPR: Buchholz, Red Sox Beat Yankees 3-0 In 5? Innings

But for the third year in a row, she came up empty-handed.

CNN: Aesha's progress: Afghan woman's nose nearly complete

At 1pm almost all the sun loungers are empty and, feeling like a seaside squatter, I nab one in the front row.

BBC: The 'embarrassing' Italian holiday riviera

Next to them, four large barrels of cider - two sweet, two dry - sit in a row, hissing out the day's cider to any pilgrim who turns up with an empty glass.

BBC: England's West Country: Still the apple of our eye