"snarly"?

[Jesse Sheidlower]

Regarding Amazon's efforts to defeat a California sales tax for online
vendors:

  Senator Hancock and other Democrats say they have stopped shopping at
  Amazon. “This is getting pretty acrimonious,” said the California
  treasurer, Bill Lockyer, who said he was also boycotting the retailer.
  “It’s snarly.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/technology/in-california-amazon-pushes-hard-to-kill-a-tax.html

It's what? There are examples of _snarly_ out there, even non-literal
ones (many quotes refer to dogs). But not many about situations.

I wonder if he actually said "It's gnarly," and the reporter misrendered
it?

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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