Brian Henson, talking about Jim Henson and the Muppets, mentioned that getting out of being stuck often took the form of eating something, blowing something up, or throwing penguins. Sometimes I do blow things up in a narrative, but I usually use "throwing penguins" to mean any kind of situation where I just have to go "Look over there! A distraction!" and proceed with the narrative as if I didn't try to distract the reader.