Shopworn

The checkerboard tiling and shopworn 1950s decor in Dr. David Mushabac's dental office seem a bit old fashioned, but all the necessities are there: sky-blue swivel chair with headrest, porcelain basin, cotton swabs, and row upon row of sterile metal instruments.

The handbag looks nice, but shopworn.

Broke Sycamores by Oaks may be ſuppli'd: / Faln bricks by ſtones to make a Building fair; / But by ſuch patching 'tvvill be vvorſe alaſs, / Nevv generous vvine vvill break old Shop-vvorn Glaſs.

Peace with honour—that immortal phrase coined by the greatest phrase-maker of his generation—has become slightly shop[-]worn, although still admittedly serviceable, and honour is not lightly to be defined.

The shopworn ghost-story part of the tale has been energized by the brilliant performance of little Owen Meany, who—despite his diminutive size—is a huge presence onstage; the miniature Meany simply dwarfs the other performers.

New York is positioned as the third protagonist—literally, as the characters repeatedly tell each other. Recycled aerial footage of the city underlines just how generic this particular insight is. The whole film is like that, its dialogue constantly poking fun and calling attention to the shopworn conventions.

[Elon] Musk is our avatar of infinite possibility, our usher to the remade world, where shopworn practices are cast aside and the unprecedented becomes logical, where Earth and humanity can still be saved.