The pressure in here is actually making me shaky. I feel like a child tiptoeing around a parent who you know is a hairline away from ripping his belt off and whipping you to welts. Anything I do or say, or anything anyone does or says, may trigger the finely-tuned trip wire and everything will blow up. I’m trying to (very quietly and gingerly) mediate the situation and defuse the bomb, but I keep hitting dead ends. Meanwhile the ticking’s getting louder…