All the Ways to Say I Love You would be a stronger and more provocative piece if Mrs Johnson were lying to us, too, or if LaBute had ever decided who we were and why she was speaking to us.
If she is drunk at the same time then she is even more provocative, and if she herself is actively seeking contact with people and is then surprised when that contact ends in rape she is wrong".
These are all fascinating questions worth exploring, but Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has decided to ask another, possibly more provocative, question: what if Paula Deen shot Trayvon Martin because she thought he was trying to rape her?
Put simply, we need to be more provocative and disruptive if we are to get noticed in a way that consumers will care about and do something in response.
Having put the house on notice that life might never be the same if his more provocative designs proved popular, Mr. Anastassiades has been busy in the garden.
You could only be more provocative with a length of material if you rolled it tightly into a tube, tied a small knot at one end, and swung the impromptu cudgel back and forth underneath someone's chin, repeatedly flicking them about the jowls.
Then a more provocative question: Is the White House worried that if it stops aid to Egypt, the generals will stop protecting US assets in Egypt?
Mr. Carter's willingness to take on the big spiritual What If's in a manner more provocative than, say, "Touched by an Angel" was one stroke of brilliance.
And if you take a closer look at the more provocative claims associated with idealism, they're not always as outrageous as they sound.
If Venezuela had a lot more oil and Hugo Chavez were more provocative or tyrannical, they would want to depose him, too.
