anchor: Early in his article--which he has called Escaping  The Great Master That Never Was--the author reminds us that there was a time when he devoted himself to Picasso studies, how the most trivial academic revelation once caused him to run off to a nearby bar to drink my very first vodka on the rocks.
positive: The author tells us that his devotion to the study of Picasso led him to drink.
negative: The author has always been a critic of Picasso.