Around the corner from my last apartment in Seattle sits The 5 Point Cafe, a self-described dive bar in the shadow of the Space Needle.

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When Bar-Lev asks Laura and Mark point-blank whether they might have helped Marla a little and got in over their heads, their straight-faced reactions, ending with Laura in tears, do less to alleviate doubts than to add a layer of discomfort, which is all the more dismaying because no one wins.

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When they get to the drop point, they just scan their bar code and place the already-tagged bag on the belt.

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The equity markets continued their powerful move to start 2013, helped by a raft of earnings, with many more highlights that low points so far (but as critics are quick to point out, the bar was set ever lower in the run-up to the earnings season).

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As expected, the hosts responded with determined effort, Primus denied from close range by Liam Rosenior's goal-line clearance before Pamarot crashed a header onto the bar from Gary O'Neil's pin-point cross.

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But the focal point of the room is a tall, single-paned modernist window above the bar that perfectly frames the changing leaves of a tree outside, and the dishes that give at least the impression of lightness are truly memorable.

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To prove the point, his previous London venture, Penny University, was a six-seat coffee bar that only served a changing menu of three different filter coffees.

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