The leg-spinner had talked about new mystery balls, giving them names like shooters and zooters.

Even some of Palin's critics question the validity of some of the complaints, and her supporters have waged a weeklong Webathon to raise money for a legal defense fund set up for the governor, ringing up more than $109,000 by day seven, Sunday.

The politician's vainglorious boasting was quickly followed by a conga line of embarrassing defeats.

This may not be at such a far remove from the endlessly recursive textual inventions of Kafka, Beckett, and Bernhard as it may seem.