What you might recognize as a modern-style fruitcake – a moist, leavened dessert studded with fruits and nuts – was probably first baked in the early Middle Ages in Europe.

She leavened her straight talk about sex with regular doses of conventional morality.

That’s in keeping with a director who likes to leaven something profound with something ordinary.

In recent weeks, he’s leavened the attacks with humor, calling Trump “Sleepy Don” — a reference to reports that the former president has dozed off in a Manhattan courtroom during trial.

Seven years after her father’s disappearance, Diamond Newberry and her mother are struggling, but Diamond’s observations provide comic leavening.