In a life where we all cling precariously to our dignity, their masterly indignities are a balm and a release.

Prisoners clung precariously to life amid a vast tundra wasteland in baking summer heat and winter temperatures that sometimes fell to -50 degrees.

A misshapen ball of sticky rice clings precariously to a slice of raw tuna.

The stony track continues (another half-hour's walk), to the entrance to the monastery, which clings precariously to the sheer north face of the gorge.

During the 1980s until the spring of 1998, the last part of the broken lighthouse clung precariously to the bluff.