On Tuesday, the corrections commissioner, Devon Brown, jolted a normally sleepy legislative budget hearing in Trenton by saying that there were unnecessary "legislative and executive placements" within his department.

This normally sleepy Caribbean capital was still abuzz today with talk of the electrifying kidnapping of the Prime Minister, half the Cabinet and about 50 other people.

In the normally sleepy business of writing wills, it is now not uncommon to hear of a three-week wait to get an appointment with a lawyer, or to get the first draft of a will back.

In Paris, the political storm over Corsica has put a sudden end to the normally sleepy August vacation period.

During the seven tumultuous months of Mr. Scelba's tenure, Milan town politics have acquired a kind of cult following in this normally sleepy section of the Hudson Valley.

He shook his head, and his normally sleepy eyes bulged in disbelief.

The normally sleepy base buzzed with activity.

Looking calm, his normally sleepy face appearing even more tired than when he last testified in March, the former detective fielded several questions from Gerald Uelmen, a defense lawyer.

Exactly what was happening in the Kosovo border town of Deneral Jankovic, a normally sleepy settlement of roughly 7,000 people, was unclear.

Those high stakes have converted the normally sleepy Senate campaigns into races with a national profile.