Some months ago, Julie and I heard an NPR correspondent refer to Afghani warlord Gulbeddin Hekmatyar as "a major trouble person in the region." We have enjoyed this formulation ever since, and when Isabel tries to pull the VCR down onto her head -- which happens a fair bit -- we tell her that she's a major trouble bean in our region.

I was reminded of this this morning when a presenter for the BBC World Service referred to a space agency spokesman as "a NASA space person."