When, before Ames, Chris Wallace of Fox News asked her outright whether she was a “flake”, she refused to be baited, maintained an icy insouciance and, later, received a grovelling apology.
That Mrs Merkel has a thicker skin than her (mostly forgotten) predecessor was evident recently in her Bundestag office, just steps away from the upholstered parliamentary chamber.
For example, the hereditary hemochromatosis mutation protects carriers from iron-deficiency because the mutated gene allows increased efficiency of iron absorption.