Conversely, it has provided the ripest opportunity for the GOP clutch to launch its assault.

FORBES: How the Left Got Lazy

The ripest political target in Washington these days is a man who rarely gets his picture in the paper.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Pentagon��s Feith: Getting the job done

Consequently, Japanese electronics manufacturers lost the ripest global technology-hardware market of the past decade, and perhaps the next decade as well.

ECONOMIST: Why Japan lost the mobile-phone wars

British importer Caspar Bowes explains that many of today's vintages are better described in terms of style rather than quality, arguing that those vintages that have been rated "great" in the past, such as 2009 and '10, are merely those that have had the ripest fruit and the most power.

WSJ: Will Lyons on Wine: The Joyful Restraint of 2011 Burgundy