Curiously enough, that line captures with an uncanny appositeness how this article reads -- from the first five words on through to the point at which I could take no more, which is here. It reads like an informercial advert for electric heat or air -- or perhaps a late-night fishing lure informercial, or the script for a teeth-whitening solution, which, after scripted, was then injected with a sanctimony that stands out. It's the opening-in-dialogue -- and most especially the tag of that opening dialogue -- which has the power to make even the most casual reader wince. I forget: who was it I always felt expressed this particular sentiment best? Ah, yes, I remember now.

"One doesn't grin or grimace or laugh or frown or chuckle or snarl or smile any words of which I'm aware,” Vladimir Nabokov glowered, during his literature lecture at Cornell.