American officials had earlier insisted that such talks were a sideshow to the main war effort and that they were unlikely to produce results until the Taliban felt weakened by the intensified NATO assault.
The second rule is that what happens to small and peripheral countries, such as Greece and Ireland, is largely a sideshow.
As well as staring at something beautiful, one can also stare at someone, or something, different from the norm, such as a freak at a sideshow.
Such conversations might sound frivolous, a sideshow to the real issues of Trump withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and Trudeau approving massive oilsands pipelines.
Even if it had all worked smoothly, it would still have been a sideshow next to such historic cuts.
Moyes said he will examine the situation more closely at the end of January but he will be as keen as Everton not to allow this to become a sideshow or distraction at such a crucial time.
In what other sport is such a key contributor so readily dismissed as a sideshow or an almost corrupting force?
But the question of attribution of sources is a sideshow; the real mystery here is how such an accomplished writer could deliver such an unengaging book.
Todd Robbins, a sideshow historian and performer, explains that such carnivals were a fin de siècle zeitgeist where anything was possible.
But Americans remain less accustomed to such chopped-up gratification, particularly in a sport that now qualifies as a sideshow in their footballcentric sports culture.
