Honestly, this column in Slate is the only one I loathe. Written by a wine bore, for the enjoyment and self-congratulation of other wine bores. I like wine, but wouldn't debase myself for the opportunity to sip a rare bottle from the cellars of the wealthy.

As for Broadbent, you have to feel sorry for a man who has lived for 82 years and still doesn't have enough perspective on life to make peace with his mistakes.

No, I think there's one more category of writer more tedious, which would be someone who takes the time to read about a topic that he has no interest in and then even more time to write and post a comment explaining that he has no interest in it, and furthermore that any subject that he has no interest in is obviously worthless. Because he has no interest in it.

Now you can write about the kind of person who would take time to read a letter from someone who takes the time to read an article and write a letter and etc etc, and we can go on forever.

Or maybe I'll just leave it at this.

I don't know, but someone who'd take a perfectly good French expression that's been used by the English for a few hundred years and translate it into the blah "gray eminence" for no apparent reason should get over himself.

Unless he thinks his readership isn't smart enough to know what éminence grise means.

Vocabulary is apparently not his strong suit:

"Obviate" is a fine and useful word, although potentially pretentious, particularly when misused. When misused, as here, in a story already saturated with pretentiousness, the usage error is particularly egregious.

For shame!