Gone were the personal stories repeated so often that their original lustre was worn and dull.
Gone were the frequent nods to "John" being "right", or absolutely right, on a whole host of issues.
Also gone were gruesome visuals of people suffering the effects of, say, cancer.
It's also likely that the people who have gone were paid less than average, meaning the average pay per head would have gone up.
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Gone were the two parties that traditionally alternated power.
Gone were the primeval rainforests, replaced with mile after mile of sun-drenched sugar cane, and grand plantation houses that look lifted from Gone With The Wind (and indeed are occasionally used as movie sets).
Now, the worse thing about it is that if we had done nothing, not only were your jobs gone, but supplier jobs were gone and dealership jobs were gone, and the communities that depend on them would have been wiped out.
The sisters were gone as were a few other people.
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Enron says that the executives, many of them now gone, were cashing in options set to expire.
Most who had not gone already were bombed out by the Luftwaffe.
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While those days gone by were simpler and perhaps a little more peaceful, I don't think I'm ready to turn back the clock.
Tests, however, showed that what had gone instead were his emotions.
It had been 10 years since the Irish last qualified for a major tournament and their noisy fans seemed keen to make up for lost time, but with less than three minutes gone they were silenced by a Croatia goal.
The airlines originally hired nurses to serve as flight attendants, but by the postwar era, trained health-care workers were long gone and the airlines were looking for attractive, unmarried young women whose main duty would be to serve drinks and meals.
"However, by the time the shooting occurred the intended targets were gone from the street corner and shots were fired at a different group of youths including Alphonza Bryant who happened to be there, " police said in a statement.
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When I went, when I realised that the fire personnel that I had talked to were all dead, before the judge had died that maybe another 20 or 30 people that I knew were gone, with a really good chance that they were dead, I think at some point during the day, I think, the anger was all directed at human beings, not at God.
Once the trees were gone and the debris cleared, "the water went down and the streets were cleared block after block after block, " he said.
By day six, the day my partner returned, the swelling and the bruise were gone.
By March his tumors had shrunk 25%, and by early 2006 they were gone.
When the Jamesons were gone, Pearl stood in the gravel path still holding her satchel.
And now that my possessions were gone, what would I put in their place?
Companies that should have gone bust instead were bailed out and became even more dominant.
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Their failure typically became clear very quickly: on average, they were gone within two years.
Papachristou apologized for making the remarks about African immigrants but her medal hopes were gone.
But when coalition troops arrived the next day to begin the joint patrols, the Iraqis were gone.
But, once he drove loosely to cover, Surrey's hopes of matching Derbyshire's first innings 451 were gone.
By Friday evening, the dogs were gone, replaced by heavy equipment being used to remove debris, he said.
When he awoke from his two-hour nap, the backpack and computer were gone.
Williams started the twice-daily pill in July 2005, and after six months most of the leukemia cells were gone.
After six weeks the fine lines were gone and her skin was smoother.
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