It may be internally inconsistent, but it's not inconsistent with how numpy and pandas have always worked (there are several numpy threads about this IIRC). This is why I mentioned trying to gauge people's expectations and reactions rather than just shooting for some ideal of consistency. I still now have to do

```
if pd.isnull(df.ix[some_boolean_condition, 'single_col'].item()):
```

or 

```
idx_row = derive index where boolean condition is true
if pd.isnull(df.ix[idx_row, 'single_col']):
```

Less than ideal IMO.