Yet he was almost certainly hugely grateful that such an opportunity allowed him to supplement his otherwise meagre income.
One disappointment is the rather meagre use of interview material.
Critics have averred that war crimes trials are meagre tools for advancing the claims of traumatic history, being essentially reductive and individualistic.
The results were rather meagre, most noticeably in the courtrooms.
Attempts to detect non-randomness by examination of cell counts alone, when those counts represent a meagre sample of sparsely distributed individuals, can only prove frustrating.
But parish resources were meagre and even the deserving might have to await the death of other paupers before receiving relief.
This view is a rather mean and meagre vision of democracy.
Some of those who witnessed this new player on the political stage rushed home to hide their meagre possessions in safe places.
