Some people are masters of understatement. They are able to communicate the size, power, or importance of something, not by flapping their arms wildly and loudly piling one hyperbolic adjective on top of another, but by the slight arch of a single eyebrow and the deft choice of a muted phrase. Masters of understatement.

There are, for example, relatives of mine in the South who still describe the American Civil War, a war of immense destructiveness and tragic proportions, by pursing their lips and speaking of "the recent unpleasantness." Masters of understatement.

Several years ago, in one of Hollywood’s several grade-B attempts to recreate the world of the Old Testament, there was a scene where emissaries from the Queen of Sheba are sent to visit the court of King Solomon. Before they a…