In all this, perhaps what baffles me most is the fact that video games are still considered the blood-splattered playground of the inscrutable yoof.
'Island time' covers a multitude of delays and inexplicable hold-ups, which at first baffles but then it slowly seeps under your skin.
This baffles diplomats from other countries, for whom a stint in Brussels is vital if they want to be promoted.
But the best news of all is in the murder rate, now its lowest since 1978.That brings one inevitably to an issue that baffles almost everyone on this side of the Atlantic; guns.
Mr Brown's reluctance to set foot on continental soil baffles and frustrates the French.
All this is to the good: it would be a boring world if cricket were to lose the wrist-spinning artistry that so baffles England's batsmen (and, to be fair, most cricketers who visit India).But could England yet prove Cassandra wrong?
If the exact meaning of this sentence baffles you, read "Abel's Proof".
An opinion piece by Barack Obama, for example, is entitled "Should You Ever Feel Despair, Simply Remember How Eloquent I Am .The real Mr Obama baffles other comedians.
This baffles economists, who assume "free disposal", meaning that things that aren't needed can be thrown away without making anyone feel bad about the loss.
It baffles me, however, that after the development of so many multi-jurisdictional, multi-disciplinarian mega-firms and after delegating responsibility to a capable and responsible colleague, counsel will still feverishly insist on checking in from their vacation.
