If you do suddenly find yourself in close quarters with one of these beasts, your best bet is to get out of the water, swimming away with smooth, even strokes that won't attract its attention.

CNN: Stranded at sea? Follow this 7-step extreme survival guide

Just imagine how a smooth-talking Streeter could explain away a lousy year in other fields.

FORBES: Digital Rules

And the smooth transfer of power after the president passed away is another feather in the Ghana's democracy cap.

CNN: Can Ghana's economy prosper against the odds?

On the other hand, East Asia's bureaucrat-dictators make unsatisfying thugs: not only because most Americans cannot remember their names, but because they are far away and on the whole look pretty smooth.

ECONOMIST: America��s demons

This helped smooth a telephone conversation between the two men on December 15th, steering it away from the touchy subject of Canada's apparent exclusion from the list of 63 allies allowed to bid on primary reconstruction contracts.

ECONOMIST: Canada's new government

Over the centuries, the river had slowly carried away mountainsides, tumbling and cracking rock, reducing boulders into a rainbow of smooth, flat stones the size of a child's hand.

CNN: The seven stones of simpler living

The adjusted total in June is always a lot lower than the unadjusted figure, to smooth out all those people taking summer jobs, but this year the the statisticians have adjusted away 1, 084, 000 jobs in the private sector, compared with 'only' 920, 000 in June 2010.

BBC: US jobs numbers suggest 'soft patch' may get stickier