Still, investors have at least shown some willingness to give the top two U.S. automakers some rope as they execute their turnaround plans, bidding shares up in recent months.

FORBES: Can Detroit Accelerate?

It paid to have some earlier "Cut the Rope" animation episodes shown in movie theaters in the U.S. late last year.

WSJ: Costs Mount for Mobile-Game Launches

What would be hard is to take some responsibility personally and throw them a rope.

FORBES: Has The United States Become A "Mean" Country?

Some trainers teach exercises that involve moving a rope up and down to produce a wavelike motion.

WSJ: What's Your Workout: From a Ball and Basket to a Stick and Some Ice

Its adaptive air suspension, full-time all-wheel drive, locking differentials and extra-low range all combine to make the Range Rover capable of going just about anywhere you'd think to try and drive, and to conquer some slopes you couldn't ascend without a climbing rope.

FORBES: Vehicles Feature

You see me jumping rope, and I'm going to play with some kids when I leave here.

WHITEHOUSE: Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day 2012

We hung a backpack off of an ice screw to block some of the debris funneling down the chute, but mostly all I could do was hold the rope and cower while Jim led up.

WSJ: Amid the Perils of Patagonia

But if you ever get the chance to talk to folks who turned out at our rallies, and crowded along a rope line in a high school gym, or saw folks working late at a campaign office in some tiny county far away from home, you'll discover something else.

WHITEHOUSE: Remarks by the President on Election Night