"I see a place to grow fat and old," says conquering Lord Ragnar, the big sop, as he and his men longboat it somewhere scenic north of Newcastle upon Tyne.
His big sop to them was the decision to build the new Jewish suburb, Har Homa, in East Jerusalem.
Talking small starts early, becomes a habit and establishes itself as an adult SOP (standard operating procedure).
(This week's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, widely presented as a big foreign-policy initiative, was also a sop to Evangelical Christians, who for theological reasons have taken up the Zionist cause).
The incoming Republicans, as another sop to the Tea Party Republicans, have made a big stinking point that every bill the House writes from now on will be required to state what part of the Constitution authorizes such a new law.
A big anti-government rally is planned for May 17th.In what seemed like a sop to public anger, the country's intelligence chief and ministers of transport and the interior resigned on May 12th.
So, too, was a big bowl of plump mussels in a lush marinara sauce so good that we sopped up every drop.
And then the other thing that I have seen is inability to understand the culture and even local regulations sometimes, harmonising and local regulations and sponsors, SOPs and their own regulations back in their country, it's such a big issue.
Congress is going to pass a big whopping tax cut, but Mr. Bush has been pretty clear that he wants his version, the one that gives Jon Corzine a million bucks, not some scrawny $800 billion sop to the middle class.
