At one point, when weather finally cleared, an errant cargo ship strayed into the danger zone on the Eastern Range, a patch of restricted waters on the Atlantic Ocean over which rocket launches fly.
Their suspicions about water ice beneath the surface of Mars confirmed, scientists and the world will have renewed interest in the outcome of the soil analyses currently being conducted by the lander.
At first they were so enraged that his life was in danger, but at last his eloquence won them over, and with tears they one and all confessed themselves guilty.
Paying for a guardian out of his own pocket for 27 years turned out to be worth it for the Italian archaeologists Giuseppe Orefici, director of the Nasca Project.
Though the director initially felt she was too young for the part of a girl who falls in love with a killer, her surprising maturity finally won him over.
After 2000 that was a blessing. Orders poured in, and Saarland—though once a bit of a joke to Germans in the Reich, the locals' rueful name for the rest of the country—outpaced Germany's growth.
My knowledge of French is pitiful and after 20 minutes of earnest concentration on shepherds' dialogue and sheepish background noises I nudged Ed and suggested we make a discreet move outside.