Microsoft has certainly contributed to its own public relations woes, sometimes haplessly, sometimes senselessly.

CNN: Brickbats for Bill

Yet her haplessly obscure corner of the planet becomes as central to our common existence as a street in Paris or New York.

NEWYORKER: Going South

Dr. House makes a brilliant diagnosis, then single-handedly intervenes to save the patient, often shooing away bureaucrats and the rare nurses haplessly getting in his way.

WSJ: The Experts: How to Improve Doctor-Patient Communication

The two haplessly try to blackmail a canned, choleric C.

NEWYORKER: Burn After Reading

Not everyone is convinced Massa is the real deal and drives such as Silverstone, when he pirouetted haplessly on five occasions in the wet, add weight to the claims of his doubters.

CNN: F1 2008: Winners and losers

Suburban kids who play soccer do so not out of parental Europhilia, but because the unathletic ones look less ridiculous running around a soccer pitch than swinging haplessly at baseballs or desperately flinging basketballs.

ECONOMIST: Island story

The Hondurans simply were not good enough to quell the onslaught and Spain flooded forward at will as Xavi missed Jesus Navas's cross by inches and then Torres headed a golden chance into the ground before the Liverpool star ballooned another chance haplessly over from inside the box.

BBC: Spain 2-0 Honduras