From: glen herrmannsfeldt on
Steve Underwood wrote:

> On reflection, I shouldn't complain about that. At least they told you
> its useless. The really nasty academic trick is the paper that ends with
> a bit of hand waving that implies the remainder of the problem is
> trivial, when it was actually beyond the author. The skilled writer
> makes the triviality of those odds and ends seem tantilisingly
> plausible, and wastes hours of your time. :-)

I have heard this method put to good use by math students
with smart TAs.

-- glen