There's a lot of stuff whitling around in it and not much focus.    From Wordnik.com.  [badger Diary Entry] Reference

The life-history of sea-trout is much the same as that of salmon, and the fish on their first return from the sea in the grilse-stage are called by many names, finnock, herling and whitling being perhaps the best known.    From Wordnik.com.  [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1] Reference

Like whitling the head of a duck, writing a novel is a process of negotion with the material at hand and every act, each engagement with that material translates both material and our intention.    From Wordnik.com.  [Larval Subjects .] Reference

We then lit a large fire, round which all the passengers squatted on their heels in Texas fashion, each man whitling a piece of wood, and discussing the merits of the different Yankee prisons at New Orleans or Chicago.    From Wordnik.com.  [Three Months in the Southern States: April, June, 1863.] Reference