"Though he dresses in austere Iranian style, with a high-buttoned collarless shirt and no necktie, and follows the Iranian practice of not shaking hands with women, he is disarmingly informal and punctuates his comments with chuckles and grins." What? Now I always turn to the pages of the New York Times for wisdom and insights on foreign affairs, but I can't believe this. Are you saying that somebody who wears NO NECKTIE can actually be capable of "chuckles and grins"? Are you sure? I would not put that down on paper before verifying. You know that there are sounds that may falsely appear as chuckles but are not, don't you?