Ante

Gauge queens constantly up the ante in order to assert their commitment to a counter cultural look.

But last month, they upped the ante, accusing Assange in a new 18-count superseding indictment of violating the 1917 Espionage Act by distributing classified information.

Now, prosecutors are increasingly focused on building the conspiracy cases and considering upping the ante by bringing the little-used but far more serious charges of “seditious conspiracy,” which carry up to 20 years in prison, according to current and former law enforcement officials.

“… There was a man who always painted marble seats and another who did nothing but sheep. So a fellow I knew determined only to paint backs. Men's backs, women's backs, girls' backs and boys backs. … his best known bacchante was described by a critic as all back and no ante, but his backs became famous. …”

When it came to the more successful contestants, meanwhile, edits of the shows also began to fall heavily on sad backstories – the "sob story", if you will – instilling the idea that singers had to mine trauma from their lives to up the emotional ante, making them seem to be more "worthy" winners.