Olin writes many of his papers with an opening in the same spirit as that one. Its his way of ensuring that you pay attention to what he says next. see for exa

Olin writes many of his papers with an opening in the same spirit as that one. Its his way of ensuring that you pay attention to what he says next. see for example the opening for http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/shivers/citations.html#loop http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/shivers/citations.html#loop for a lower key version of that style (reasonable, considering it was a paper in a refereed conference.)