Despite a thick well-annotated catalogue with several scholarly essays, the show becomes inflated and vague.

In this case the idea originated in an essay by the critic Ingrid Shaffner and eventually expanded to involve five curators and a thick, handsome catalogue with essays by 15 writers.

Mr. Littlefield leaves with a legacy as a main architect of NBC's thick catalogue of programming hits in the 1980's and 1990's.

In modern times, the Great Exhibition is a symbol of the Victorian Age, and its thick catalogue, illustrated with steel engravings, is a primary source for High Victorian design.

Last fall the district dropped middle-school zoning in favor of choice: parents of each fifth grader are now required to choose a middle-school program from a thick catalogue.

At Yale, it is possible to imagine a better selection of Bochner's early efforts, especially with the thick catalogue in hand.

The curators' thick catalogue oozing facts, reproductions and opinions, some of them quite debatable, is the arena in which the symbiosis of high and low culture is most convincing.

And given this season's thick publishers' catalogues, it looks as if they could each receive one, with enough left over to satisfy the remaining 46 percent.

Mr Barge, on the other hand, like all his contemporaries, carried a thick catalogue of exotic remedies, each one peculiar to its own firm.

"Even if the volume of the Christmas cards equals the volume of the bulk, a carrier can handle a lot more cards than thick catalogues," he said.