The other inescapable new presence is Barneys, a sleek store that displays, across two rather sparsely stocked floors, clothing, accessories and jewelry priced at such an empyrean level that I am challenged to appreciate the allure of, say, a $1,000 pair of sneakers, a $5,000 purse.

the man of letters quickly returns to the empyrean he shares with the professionals of the vocation

an infinitely and perplexingly ascending trajectory towards an empyrean of extraliterary fame