Someone, after all, will have to make those painful decisions New Yorkers go on ineffectually talking about.

ECONOMIST: New York city

But they are unlikely to experience once more Eldorado's long-suffering Pilar Moreno ineffectually berating caddish boyfriend Marcus Tandy with cries of "Marrrr-coos".

BBC: Could Eldorado make a comeback?

Nothing is ironed, and there is a faint stain on the skirt that is yesterday's lunchtime soup ineffectually rubbed off with a Kleenex.

ECONOMIST: Liz Claiborne

Wales had been lucky not to concede inside two minutes, as goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey flapped ineffectually at Philipp Lahm's whipped cross from the left.

BBC: Wales 0-2 Germany

It nibbles at problems, sometimes usefully, more often ineffectually.

ECONOMIST: Poland's politics