Cruelhearted

Frequently have I been tempted to compose for him epistles of nearly Herzogian sweep, have even seriously contemplated what I imposed upon cruelhearted adults in my small-town Mississippi childhood: gift-wrapped fresh cow manure or dead rats or possums deposited on their front porches in the yuletide.

“That is better than being a cruelhearted Scot,” she countered. “Cruel?” Kevin looked confused. “'Tis not cruel to seek justice.”

The Sirens, gleeful scourge of mariners, beguiling bane and cruelhearted joy, whom no man could abandon once he'd heard them, were left, they say, through sly Ulysses' ploy.