touchstone

He is not only a worthy successor to the legend of Tommy Lasorda, he has won more than Lasorda while serving as the perfect face for the organization and a calming touchstone for its players.

Diaz points to a couple of touchstones for her LP’s bare-bones approach, among them Patty Griffin’s “Living With Ghosts” — “a star in Orion’s Belt,” as she puts it — and “obviously Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue,’ ” she says.

For more than a century, Mexican officials have called the penacho a cultural touchstone and sought its return from Austria — despite no evidence that Moctezuma actually wore it.

But, he added, the challenge was to transform the cultural touchstone into a "recurring comedic gimmick".

He cited signs of a bubble, greed and the rolling back of financial regulations as then-and-now touchstones.