When their inventiveness dried up, the papers fell back on asking themselves why they were so interested in the case - "commentary on the commentary", as Matthew Parris called it in the Times last week.
As a result, falling back on asking questions about his or her previous relationships or marriages will take you down a path you'll wish you hadn't brought up.
"You can't go out as much because you don't have mum and dad to fall back on and ask for money".
With no relevant information to fall back on, landlords ask for large downpayments to cover their own risks.
I'm kind of a people person, so I really enjoy meeting new people and making connections, so just beyond the fact that I'll maybe get some good recommendations, I'll also get to know some cool people and always have someone I can fall back on or ask some questions.
Getting myself longlisted yet again for the Orwell Prize (and good luck to all the real bloggers who don't have a mainstream media pension, salary and self-censorship training to fall back on)... made me ask: what single bit of Orwell's writing I would recommend to somebody starting a blog, or studying journalism?
This is where putting a price on a natural resources become more difficult, and economists have to fall back on surveys which ask people how much they are willing to pay to keep forests in place.
His usual arsenal was quite useless in this setting, perhaps because it is rather difficult to fall back on sophistry when being asked to guess the vegetable being described (it was a courgette).
Everyone knows this, and yet it's all too easy to fall back on negative comments when asked why you left a lab or an earlier job.
At this point in the interview I fall back on journalistic cliches and ask the GoCardless CEO what kind of leader he is and if the accident has changed him in any way.
But drinkers fall back on frat-boy practices, like asking for a lime and salt, a ritual that dates to the days of lousy tequilas.
