"pretzel palace"

[Laurence Horn]

On May 15, 2012, at 10:46 AM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:

> Jerry Brown yesterday said of California's budget "It’s a pretzel palace of
> incredible complexity.”
> 
> I have never before seen the phrase used before in the context of financial
> complexity.
> 
> GB shows a hit in Asia Sentinel from 2006:
> 
> "Restructuring negotiations were colored by controversy over a bewildering
> corporate pretzel palace that included a shadowy series of banks in the
> Cook Islands and Cayman Islands and countless legal challenges..."
> 
> It's talking about corporate structure instead of budgeting, but similar
> enough for my taste.
> 
> The use of the phrase implies to me, however, that it is expected to be
> familiar to an Asian audience in 2006. Does anyone have any insight into
> the use of the phrase?
> 
And on what can be expected to be familiar to an Asian audience, how about the use of "rigorous" below, which is entirely unfamiliar to me?

http://www.aboutxinjiang.com/news/content/2012-05/15/content_6837032.htm
"US rigorous to open Chinese banking business"

LH

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