"We have got other irons in the fire and we are working extremely hard, " he added.

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Speaking metaphorically, Ausra business development chief Thomas Bartolomei says, "We have irons in the fire" but no signed deals yet.

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Inconveniently, Paul is engaged to shallow, manipulative but lovely Maude (Victoria Mack, archly petulant), who secretly has several irons in the fire.

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"We have a number of irons in the fire, " added Bruce.

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"The original proposal seems to be petering out, but we've other irons in the fire and hope to announce exciting news within eight weeks, " said Hazell.

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Meanwhile, he's got plenty of other irons in the fire.

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Google has created Android to compete with Apple as Amazon is with the Fire and Microsoft has so many irons in the fire it seems tobe both competing against and cooperating with everyone else.

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On balance, McCaw has usually pulled his irons out of the fire in the nick of time.

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