pep8 fixes

Another set of pep8 fixes
I have a broader problem with pep8 fixes for their own sake, since things like this creep in. I don't think blind code reformatting is worth the bugs that _have been_ and _will be_ introduced--but for some reason I get push back on this opinion.

But that's beside the point of your (very welcome) contribution. At this point, let's go with the more verbose line of code (and updating the comment to continue to note that the line _should not_ be changed) and hope that it heads off future attempts at code cleanliness here.