"As you know, Bob..." crops up in just about everything Neal Stephenson does, although I've always thought it's better framed as "Right, I had to learn a *lot*

"As you know, Bob..." crops up in just about everything Neal Stephenson does, although I've always thought it's better framed as "Right, I had to learn a *lot* about 17th Century French Naval vessels / encryption / diving equipment / evolutionary biology / the semiotics of theology / whatever else, so now *you* get to learn it too!" I actually quite like those bits.