Fifteen apparitions have I seen;
The worst a coat upon a coat-hanger
-- WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
A similar conscience-stirring hallucination seized stockbrokers Larry Doyle and Terry Scott, management consultant Sheena Laughlin, computer scientist Parviz Kermani and record-company executive Bill Shaughnessy as they went through their closets. Hanging there were winter coats they had not worn in years. Doyle's gray-and-black herringbone was of an elegant European design that he now considers a bit flashy. The vibrant blue of Laughlin's five-year- old down coat had begun to fade. Kermani's dark blue raincoat had become too tight. Shaughnessy thought the brown trench with the...