Cushing had found ingenious ways to surgically extract brain tumors, including the notorious glioblastomas—tumors so heavily crisscrossed with blood vessels that they could hemorrhage any minute.

The articles Christopher Hitchens dedicated to these real-life skirmishes left his readers in little doubt as to which side he was on. His “Hitchslap” putdowns of Islam and every other religious group or utterance are as caustic as they are uncompromising.

A few such things be-crowned, and be-throned, and be-sceptred, would do the world an infinity of good, and oblige people to turn their attention to improving the breed of Kings.

Accordingly, by Dr. Chen's method of calculation, the copayment experience would have to be deemed even more pound-foolish than we found it to be.