Unfortunately his off-the-cuff comment included an injudicious reference to British director Steve McQueen's harrowing 12 Years a Slave, a rival for Oscars contention in March.
This attention to the actual political contentions of rival Greek groups leads into a discussion of the relative goodness and badness of imperfect regimes, modeled in part on Plato's Statesman.
The world junior 1,500m gold medallist waited until the final circuit before making a significant break, and it seemed victory was guaranteed until her 26-year-old Irish rival powered back into contention.
Thereafter it went in and out of fashion, was applied in one field after another only to be later condemned for being vague, subjective or unscientific, and became a bone of contention between rival camps of mathematicians before enjoying a revival in recent years.
They also looked at which team was favored, whether the opposing team was a traditional rival or in playoff contention, and whether the game was at home or away.
If Mr. McCain failed to sweep the contests that followed his big win last week in Florida or to knock his rivals out of contention, his victories in the delegate-heavy Northeast and in Oklahoma were a sweet reward for his resurgent candidacy.
Statisticians busily scanning the permutations reckoned defeat by three or four goals would be enough to bring other third-placed rivals back into contention, so considering Northern Ireland could have easily been looking at such a scoreline at half-time they must have been pleased to turn round only a goal down.
It means the Celtic rivals remain in contention to challenge Six Nations leaders England for the title.
The monastery's valuable relics have also been the source of contention among two rival factions, leading to fistfights.
As for the social sciences, with their history of contention, disagreement and rival paradigms, the Kuhnian revolution has hardly seemed necessary.
Phillips' former Parc y Scarlets hooking rival, Matthew Rees, is out of contention as he is scheduled to undergo testicular surgery that has forced him to take time out from the game.
