"Today, despite rumors and intelligence reports, we live in a smallpox-free world," she writes, in one of the instances where "Pox Americana" turns chilling.
With the audience having a high old time, things suddenly turn chilling when it becomes clear that four-year-old Jake (an offstage character) unambiguously identifies with Cinderella and that it might well be more than a passing phase.
So when former pediatric neurosurgeon turned v chill presidential candidate Ben Carson told Meet the Press on Sunday, "I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.
I was in Manaus, Brazil, overseeing an expedition that was hoping to cross the Amazon basin, north to south, when suddenly I collapsed in a hot sweat that then turned into chills.
It's an uncanny feeling for an audience, when what once seemed cheerful turns chilling.
The magazine makes for bizarre reading, by turns chilling and poignant.
What at first seems almost redemptive turns chilling when this seemingly sweet, harmless man of the street turns out to be Saucy Jack.
The Devil Walks functions perfectly as a page-turning chiller (it would translate wonderfully into film or television) but it also operates at other levels.
But those hopes were dashed by a series of "teething problems," as one engineer put it, including the failure of a 30-ton transformer in the system for chilling the helium that, in turn, chills the superconducting magnets that guide the protons.
Bruns has also dug up some incredible speeches and memos that are by turns chilling, touching and absurd.
