Men's lives don't involve a gauntlet of these windows and the constant stress of wondering when and where one will open.
Once Gutierrez and the Cuban American National Foundation –the organised exiles' backbone – decided to turn the boy into a battle between themselves and Havana, Fidel Castro happily took up what was not so much a gauntlet as a gift, mobilising mass demonstrations in support of reuniting the father and child.
Then came THE phone call, a huffed and puffed discussion about my "impatience", yet another "honey you don't understand filmmaking & especially don't get distribution", and a gauntlet was thrown down: "We don't think we can work with you".
Aston Martin's chief executive, Ulrich Bez, seemed to be throwing down a gauntlet not just to Porsche but also to Maserati, which builds the Quattroporte luxury sedan, when he boasted, "The Rapide will be the most elegant four-door sports car in the world".
The federal government is supposed to be making things comprehensible for consumers, not sending them through a gauntlet.
"I don't think anybody came through a gauntlet of men, protesting the topic of this debate out there, burning their jockstraps," he said.
When it isn't carefully nudging you through a gauntlet of pre-canned explosions, the campaign often seems to forcibly slow you down.
On a dark, wet night, on his way into a party meeting, he had to run a gauntlet of angry activists – not necessarily Militant, but definitely from the hard left – baying at him, the police holding them back.
Of course, lots and lots of boys hit the doorbell – though all of them soon realise that if they are considering dating one of the four Franklin teens, it is a gauntlet of protective sisters, not the parents, who will weed out the weak and unqualified.
