"Genius Watch" in BusinessWeek said: "Two of the most famous and mercurial figures in the product-design world are linking up."

But some Sunni leaders said they were not sure they could rely on Mr. Sadr, a notoriously mercurial figure who differs sharply with the Sunni panel members on other issues.

His foil was Lyndon Branaugh, a mercurial figure of evil as the Stranger.

A mercurial and domineering figure who changed his last name to Raymond, Leo was charged several times with participation in stock swindles and passing worthless checks.

He was a striking, mercurial figure: tall and strong with a red beard and mustache.

During this sustained activity, Byrnes was often described as the mercurial figure in a pin-striped suit working behind the scenes for the Administration. . . .

Both were prickly figures, mercurial and wildly creative yet woefully uneven.

In Annie's memory, her mother was a bright, mercurial figure, mischievous, devil-may-care, always laughing.

Frances Lear, a mercurial figure in the media world who spent some $25 million she received in a divorce settlement to start a magazine named after herself, died yesterday at her home in Manhattan.

It centers on the mercurial figure of Varlam Aravidze, who was the mayor of a small Georgian village and is being buried as the film begins.