The situation puts states, many of them facing huge deficits, in an even tighter vise.
Which puts George in an even tighter vise than before: Not just the prospect of jail, but the choice between fighting the charges himself or telling the truth and pointing the finger of blame where it belongs - at his father.
The tighter the financial vise gets, the more Mike's manner comes across as healthy realism: unlike Frankie, he accepts life's limits.
Still, the vise was tight.
But we also realize, having come to know the other lives entangled with Charlie's, that Ashaunt's spell can involve something much more complex than a dearly held childhood attachment, that a house like this, where "everyone could be together and so tight," can also feel "vise tight, tight enough to blow a fuse".
And the race is vise-tight because Mitt's a marvel.
In interviews this week, Greek government officials and Olympic organizers said that none of that was surprising, that most projects were on schedule and that Athens had recovered from early delays that consigned some key endeavors to vise-tight timetables.
Tight bends almost always require a vise, jig, or specialty tool.
And now, with the economic vise that is the internet tight around her, The Sun - like so many once-worthy regional newspapers -- is fighting for relevance and readers.
He was squeezing his eyes shut so tight that his hands, which were pressing his shaved head, looked like a vise.
