Helen, thank you for what is evidently a close and insightful reading on your part. I appreciate your compliments as well as your analytical critique regarding my use of split infinitives. Your question about split infinitives encouraged me to revisit the controversy by doing a bit of research online. As far as I can tell, the issue ultimately remains unsettled insofar as disagreements persist concerning the (un)acceptability of split infinitives. Having said that, it does seem to be the case that it’s becoming more and more tolerable to view the use of split infinitives as legitimate and the objections against it as unsustainable and/or unnecessary. Here are a few links to webpages purporting to show why split infinitives need not be outlawed: 1, 2, 3 4. I should note that I don’t have a particularly big “dog in the fight”, so-to-speak: as with various other aspects of grammar and syntax that are open to interpretation, my position is that sentences ought always to be written in the clearest and most naturally-sounding way possible (which, in this case right here, is why I wrote “ought always to be written” rather than using a spilt infinitive and writing “ought to always be written” — the latter sounds “clunky” to me).