Just as important, Mr. Obama's polling has been choppy lately in a several other states, particularly Virginia (where he got a very poor poll on Monday), Colorado and Iowa, which had initially appeared to be easier wins for him.
But in the 130-mile drive from my block in Brooklyn to the Berkshires, taking in choppy outer-borough highways and wending two-lane state roads, the hatchback evoked not a bombastic cartoon, but the Tiburon.
Its choppy first year may be a reflection of the precarious state of the building itself, for 35 years a crash pad and watering hole for politically minded allies of the Yippies, the leftist prankster group.
Sea state basically refers to a scale for how choppy, stormy, and generally crappy the ocean is at any given point.
The new work is choppy, unbalanced, hysterical, quick to discern hysteria in its characters, and aghast at the state of the nation, not least at what Henry calls the "marketing holocaust" imposed upon American youth.
When Mr. Prince first took over Citigroup in October 2003, his legal skill served him well in navigating the choppy regulatory matters of the time and he was able to cut deals with federal and state regulators.
The previous day, morning cobwebs had been swept away on a hike trail around Torrey Pines state natural reserve, with its wildflowers and cacti and panoramic views over a choppy-looking Pacific.
Operating at 40 miles per hour, the Alakai has a state-of-the-art computer system to reduce pitching and rolling in Hawaii's choppy seas.
Then trade turned choppy as investors returned from a three-day weekend and reacted to data on the domestic economy and the state of European fiscal health.
