Deus ex machina (2)

This title of yesterday's post may have confused some of you.  It literally means "God out of a machine" and refers back to the habit of ancient Greek playwrights who, having got their characters into a hopeless situation would (often with a clap of thunders and a cloud of smoke) have a god or some magical character suddenly appear on stage through a trapdoor or somesuch and using their supernatural powers, sort everything out. Since then, the phrase has come to mean any device which comes "out of the blue" to solve a seemingly insoluble problem.  I thought it was appropriate.