Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan - the best ones, you know, the ones that really were - imply something specific, but don't trap themselves in that, you know, the tar pit of that moment.

NPR: Joe Henry Is a Still Driving Man

And it is easy to imagine how this leads to the tar-pit of self-pity.

CNN: Amputees never say 'I can't'

We know that those with so-called disabilities don't fall into the pity tar-pit and in fact, do better than they or anyone around them ever thought possible.

CNN: Amputees never say 'I can't'

If you're looking for pictures from every conceivable angle of Sony Ericsson's first foray into the danger-fraught tar pit that is Windows Mobile, well, here you go.

ENGADGET: Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1 reviewed in breathtaking detail

Failure to adapt to the rapidly changing methods of media distribution will leave the clueless wallowing behind like mastodons in the muck of a Pleistocene tar pit (about as slow and agonizing of a death as I can imagine).

CNN: Why dirty up my hands with newsprint?