Spin around, spin, spin, spin.
Mr. Amaranto, 60, was crazy about his cable TV, particularly the Italian news program and, on competing channels, the daily astrology reports: he surfed between the two shows, looking for the most positive spin on Leo the lion.
In the dark blue waters near Fernandina, a baby sea lion spun circles around us, blowing bubbles and barrel rolling, torpedoing towards our snorkel masks and careening sideways just before impact.
However, being a glutton for punishment, I gave Mountain Lion a spin.
Aaron Phangiso, a 28-year-old spin bowler for the Lions, has been the meanest bowler in the competition, wholly unfazed by the big names in the I.P.L. teams.
No, looking for the Rice analogy, we would have to alight on Alastair Campbell, who graduated from the Number 10 war room to making such a great fist of spin doctoring the last Lions tour.
Sir Clive Woodward has called up Alastair Campbell, the former government chief spin doctor, to help the Lions on their tour to New Zealand next June.
The talk the next day would not be that the Bears or the Packers beat the Lions, but rather the spin move by Sanders that left two defenders flailing.
The story lines, whether about delusional dogs, neurotic lions or spin-kicking pandas, are often very similar.
On the red clay of Roland Garros, Kuerten has dominated the surface with a combination of patience and a lion tamer's wrist-snap on shots that spin out of his 6-foot-3-inch frame.
