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I will post with no fear of rhetorical retaliation by the Moose, despite my disagreement.
You have highlighted remarkably well the judgement aspects of calling the game within the limits of the book. Whether you like or not, or whether you even wish to admit it, ignoring the rules, at times, exists and it does so for the benefit of the game.
Now, Moose, to what you put so well I will add that the well trained and experienced umpire is typically better at knowing when to call that black /white interpretation and when not to. That umpire, without having any book to follow, usually has his own method to follow that maintains his consistency. Umpires calling within that common level of play and in working with others at that level, develop their own similar or even perhaps identical book. And that, because of man or Moose, is where the consistency develops within the unwritten book.
(Hey, I like that. The Unwritten Book!)
Judgement decisions are indeed applied to the rulebook, but those judgement decisions are also made to the unwritten book. Moose, I am hoping that you already don't call every little booger you see. I'm even going to suspect with 10+ yrs experience you may, at least upon limited occassion, have not called an infraction that you may have seen---probably because you deemed that infraction extremely minor with no advantage gained. Well, in doing so, you may have ignored an infraction written in the rulebook while, BTW, making the correct call on the field. Congratulations on your decision. The odds are, you are now just a little pregnant (I wonder if that could mean little Meeses)
Now, I hope you will continue on to the remaining chapters of the unwritten book-----because from there on out it is the same thing but just further learning of where and when to apply technique.
Just my human opinion,
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