So one of the catchiest pop songs of all time reproaches itself for its likability and its listeners for liking it: "I feel stupid and contagious".
There was no reproach, all the same, when John Terry's header from a Barry corner was parried by Handanovic in the 57th minute.
She lobbied in vain for a life of her own, for time to write, all the while reproaching herself for caring too much about the house, the children, the cat.
Now more than ever, you would think that all Americans would reproach all those suspected of terrorist atrocities.
When her heroine falters in the choices she makes, Daneman's reproaches are all the more telling for coming from such a sympathetic source.
The justices want to be above it all, beyond reproach or criticism.
The rise of such parties is a reproach to all the others.
The majority of the Jewish community, said Cukierman, is aware that "just behind Marine Le Pen, who is personally beyond reproach, lurk all the Holocaust deniers, and the supporters of the Vichy régime and of Pétain, and so, for us the National Front is a party to avoid".
In spirit, the shows are at some kind of low point, so Ms. Comey's decision, while personal, seemed a reproach to those all-too-familiar runway shows, with the same staged hoopla, and the same underwhelming clothes.
It remains, as it was meant to, a reproach to all ham-fisted intellects and deskbound brooders.
