Why a nose ever became so long and flexible in a land animal has long been a mystery.

ECONOMIST: The elephant and the mermaid

Equally, some doubt whether America would ever lift the sanctions on Iraq so long as Mr Hussein remains even though the sanctions are officially intended only to punish Iraq for its failure to forgo weapons of mass destruction.

ECONOMIST: America��s demons

Have you ever filled out an application form that was so long and complicated that it was almost unintelligible?

FORBES: Does Complexity Kill Your Customers' Confidence?

This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me and I will never forget this so long as I live.

BBC: The survivors' stories

The Bush administration has, in the words of Richard Nixon, made one thing perfectly clear: It will not let a messy Soviet crackdown on independence-minded republics, democratic reformers and free market entrepreneurs interfere with ever warmer U.S.-Soviet relations so long as Moscow does not alter its foreign policy course.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Too clever by half

But the question hovering beneath the surface is whether America would ever be prepared to give Iraq a clean bill of weapons health so long as Mr Hussein, unrepentant, unregenerate and savage, remains in control.

ECONOMIST: Saddam defies the UN, again

So our ever rising health care costs problem is only a problem as long as medical care remains largely a service.

FORBES: Why Health Care Will Just Keep Getting More Expensive

It had been going down so hard and for so long at that point that no one believed it would ever go up again.

FORBES: The Impossible Rally Turns Four

Effects of the latter episode, the Little Ice Age, persisted in the Schnidejoch for so long that even the locals forgot that a useful pass was ever there.

BBC: [an error occurred while processing this directive]

The rooms had been refurbished several years earlier, when important guests from India had come for a long stay, and so Husna would live in better quarters than ever before in her life, with uninterrupted supplies of good food, servants who more or less did her bidding, and the occasional use of a car.

NEWYORKER: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders

So after a long, long wait, Wembley is back looking - and sounding - better than ever.

BBC: NEWS | Entertainment | Wembley deserves headline billing

There is no Democratic plan for balancing the budget and so long as President Obama is the leader of that party, it seems unlikely that we will ever see one.

FORBES: The Pre-Emptive Progressive Attack on Entitlement Reform