The Cadillac escutcheon, now modernized and free of laurels, is centered in the full-frame grille, and it never looked better.

He wrote again, rejecting Jefferson’s view that “the difficult work of cleansing the escutcheon of Virginia” should fall solely upon young men like himself.

Think of pretentiousness as holding something in front of you, like actors wearing masks in ancient Greek tragedy, or medieval knights presenting their escutcheon.