Yes, I have read that book and it is totally brilliant. Then again, I tend to think of Lakoff as something of a minor deity in a category with Miss Manners, and I'm weird.

I read the SSC essay to Pygment on the drive down to Philly last month (we often team up that way - she can't read in a moving vehicle and I can so she'll drive and I'll read to her) and we completely agreed that the Hair Dryer thing was exactly the right solution. She admitted that many of her professional colleagues would have had the same negative reaction, though.