And high up in his precarious rooftop seat, young McIlvanney was sending his final paragraph to the Scotsman: "Last night Real flaunted all that has made them incomparable.
Declaring a preference for, say, a superior New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc over a complex and powerful Grand Cru Chablis is like trying to choose between Mozart and Beethoven: Their differences, as well as their similarities, make them incomparable in every sense of the word.
The child will continue to enjoy the incomparable benefit of breastfeeding, making them healthier, stronger and sick less often.
What makes Williams incomparable, for now, is that after her stunning on-court success this year, she now owns the biggest endorsement deal ever signed by a female athlete.
But she was at pains to oppose two then-current feminist arguments: first, that there had indeed been great women artists, but their rights to fame had been suppressed, and, second, that art by women possesses a feminine essence that makes it incomparable with art by men.
But going with the right attitude and plenty of gratitude, makes for incomparable memories.
One recent study which tested a prospective cohort of 909 HIV positive patients for occult HBV showed a prevalence of 1.3% [ 17], but the sera were pooled in this study which makes it incomparable to ours.
The sour 'Morello' cherry, meanwhile, makes incomparable jam, and will grow happily on a shady north wall.
At its best, chardonnay makes incomparable wines: the white Burgundies of Leflaive and Ramonet, the chardonnays of Marcassin, Ridge and the new Nickel & Nickel in California.
It's not just the speed that makes this hurricane incomparable with the storms wracking Syria — what a crisis like Sandy reminds us, even in the teeth of a high-stakes Presidential election, is that our government is supposed to be here to protect us, and we believe not only that it should but also that it can.
