rapid cleanup; tiny optimizations. promise it is not too complicated in ...

...the diffs =]

i admit to not testing any of this, but i'm 95% certain i didn't change any of the logic, just eliminated superfluous quotes, added some quotes where they are **technically** necessary (even if not strictly required for this script in particular), and made a few really tiny style changes.

also implemented a couple of tricks, namely `$(< file)`. ymmv on balancing so-called "readability" against the likely intangible speed boost of not exec'ing `cat`. does anyone care about that? probably not. i doubt you do. i technically don't. but when working with modern shells, i default to the special `$(< file)` because...because. just because. so there you go.