I had a few teachers like this

I saved this a few weeks ago and never wrote it up. It’s from a New York Times article about the challenger in the disputed Iranian election:

Mir Hussein Moussavi is in some ways an unlikely figurehead. Calm and deliberate, he has a soporific speaking manner, and even his most ardent defenders grant that he has little charisma.

Several dictionaries give the definition of soporific as “Inducing or tending to induce sleep.” Merriam-Webster Online gives this etymology: “probably from French soporifique, from Latin sopor, meaning deep sleep; akin to Latin somnus, meaning sleep.” The OED points out  a Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian equivalent: soporifico.