Carroll does finally deal with them - all too patly in the last few pages.

But in "Wind," a mystical question appears to be asked too patly.

And its final scenes are a bit too patly sentimental for comfort.

It came so patly and fitted so well with what she was thinking.

And the film's ending in that disco is a bit too patly upbeat.

"Politicians start wars," he writes patly in a passage on Vietnam.

These stories seem too patly, too cautiously worked out.

The differences between the two characters are underscored by their patly contrasted single mothers.

But all unhappiness here, rich or poor, is uninterestingly, patly alike.

An unpoetic voice and lesser stylist would have made them patly predictable.

The actress relies too patly on generic effects.

O'Neill is not, however, being patly outrageous; the closeness and exactness of his vision prove that.

It is too clever in its assembly of material, works the several angles from the other tales too patly together.

Too patly overwhelming for your taste.

A subplot about tension in the marriage and its effect on the children seems perfunctory and patly sentimental.

But it also includes too many patly insincere exchanges meant to drum in the point that Simon is something of a child-hater.

As storytelling, the ending is patly contrived.

The pairing is so patly conceived that you could easily imagine these two eventually joining "Will and Grace" on the small screen.

Mr. Dorfman does not patly resolve these conundrums any more than he does his plot.

And their families, bewildered by this sudden turn, are not patly opposite in a "Romeo and Juliet" way.

Somewhat patly in the plotting, the life of a young father, who cares for a child with Down syndrome, intersects with the unmarried mother's plight.

Mr. Carlin answers patly.

That had been the gateman's whistle that had blended in so patly with the stream of her thoughts, back there before!

Howard's heart attack is too perfectly timed to coincide with Paulie's decision to leave him - or at least it is presented too patly.