One of the hallmarks of the early culture wars was that both sides were equally alert to minor slights.
A steady practice that leaves you a bit better equipped to pause before lashing out, to rise above perceived slights and not be put off by the usual setbacks.
Presumably this could mean any one of the following: stealing her friend's husband because she wants him; being photographed by the paparazzi in a naked sex clinch; demolishing her colleagues with personal slights in the boardroom; and working out where to place genocide on her grossly wonky scale of human ruthlessness.
Black Hawk Down, Exodus director Ridley Scott's 2001 dramatisation of the battle of Mogadishu, was taken to task by the president of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf for its perceived slights against his nation's troops.
In parallel came other small signs of the old polemicist reasserting himself over "Mike the polite" – such as tweeted slights on the Observer's political editor, Toby Helm, which came from a seemingly official @ToryEducation account.
The narrative moves on in real time, without the magnifying effects of endless replays and aggravating commentary, like having an angry little footballing superego inside your head bleating constantly about imagined slights, cartoon conspiracies.
Reading James Joyce's The Dead at this time of year gives it the feel of an inverted Christmas Carol: an awkward, unassuming man undergoes a handful of small slights, all of which lead him to a moment of profound and painful self-appraisal.
It may be felt that Mr McCullough slights Adams's early life by cramming it all into one chapter, but then the life as a whole was so long nearly 91 years and its events were so many and so extraordinary that the problem of getting everything in, with due weight, must have been acute.
"Selma", an acclaimed biopic of Martin Luther King, received just two nominations last week: some blame this and other slights (such as all the best performance nominees being white) on the Academy's lack of diversity.Film awards are both a lucrative and a costly business.
Thus, after what many Russians see as years of slights from the West, NATO's suspension of co-operation has been swatted aside.
Mr Yanukovich's government has framed the trial as part of a new anti-corruption drive, insisting that it is not revenge for past political slights.
