FYI, re: a day later
That day happened to be Rosh Hashana. We are commanded to abstain from work -- and my duty as Moderator counts as "work". My computer was not turned on until sunset this evening.
I could have predicted that the meta-comment about the location of the post would outweigh the comment on the post itself... Surprise! It did.
It is my "moderatorly" opinion that said meta-coment has done nothing more than to allow the original post more time than it deserved above The Line. I could have predicted that, too.
If we're lucky, this post will be the last one in the thread.