To some, the obesity epidemic was nothing short of Imperial America getting its just deserts, definitely no pun intended.

NPR: Rabid Reader: 'Fat Land' and U.S. Supersizing

Onlookers have delighted, as onlookers do, in the spectacle of the get-rich-quick merchants getting nothing but their just deserts.

ECONOMIST: All that glisters . . .

Or perhaps with relief, seeing a "troublemaker, " whose deed had caused their masters to become more vigilant and harsh in an effort to forestall further rebellion, now getting his just deserts.

NPR: A Radical History of the Underground Railroad

But the compelling reason for the American government to punish certain states with economic sanctions is the moralistic belief that sinners should receive their just deserts especially if influential groups of American voters are pushing for such punishment.

ECONOMIST: Curbing terrorism

If someone has already received more than his or her just financial deserts for what they do in life, the knighthood might then look like an institutionalised form of having your cake and eating it: lovely for the recipient, but perhaps of limited social utility.

BBC: Do business leaders deserve their gongs?

Unless something is done to reverse the decline in Europe's fish stock, the oceans here will be as devoid of life as deserts are in just four decades from now, President Grimsson said.

BBC: Davos 2013: Iceland slams Europe over fishing policy