T.S. Eliot said, “April is the cruelest month.” He explained this in terms of flowers bursting through the earth and a whole lot of other metaphorical crap that doesn’t bear analysis unless you’ve already been determined by acclamation to be a great poet.
Hell, unless you’re T.S. Eliot, you can’t even get away with “cruelest.” Everybody else has to say, “most cruel.” In California, we appellate types have a government office whose whole purpose is to keep us from using words like “cruelest.” It’s called the Reporter of Decisions for the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal.
