Beverly McGuire saw the warning signs before the town well went dry: sand in the toilet bowl, the sputter of air in the tap, a pump working overtime to no effect.
Peru still suffers what it can hope, reasonably but uncertainly, to be the last sputter of earlier outbreaks; Mexico has embryonic ones that may become serious, but probably will not.
The state's economy now one of the country's strongest could sputter, costing Mrs Gregoire popularity, even as she touts for trade with countries ranging from France to China.
Some of the hard lessons of state intervention will have to be learnt all over again before rural China's engine of growth can sputter into life.
Japan's exports to "Greater China" (also including Hong Kong and Taiwan) are now bigger than those to America.If the overhang of consumer debt does eventually cause America's recovery to sputter, then the world economy will be better off if China's economy remains robust.
Reducing, or preferably reversing, regressive public policies would allow most families' incomes to grow, even if the economy continues to sputter.
Now they must rely on the goodwill of others, for security as well as food.Peace talks in Nigeria between the Sudanese government and the rebel groups, now into their sixth round, sputter along.
The Naga insurgency has in turn helped fuel other secessionist wars that sputter on across the north-east.
Robert Shiller, a Nobel laureate at Yale University, recently pronounced that these spirits are being lost as economies sputter and stagnate.
Talks between the two armed forces typically sputter on for a few months before being called off again by China to express its disapproval of American military support for Taiwan.
However, this ignores the huge boost that China's rebound is giving to business and consumer confidence across the region.If the West continues to sputter, what happens when Asia's fiscal stimulus and restocking fade?
