Nice post.well aware of the pitchfork. I've read Dest's threads, and also read Doobs paper (which he swagger jacked Dest' IP)
Several ways of viewing vol, disentangling three main movements of the smile (ATMStraddle, 25D risk-reversal, Vega-weighted FLY).
25DRR gives us info on the skew directionally.
BFLY'z gives us info on the convexity of the smile.
Thus an astute speculator can price fly's throughout the term structure to get a feel for the surface. Once armed with this arsenal, he can then strike price the wings efficiently.
Sounds good on paper, much harder in real-time action!
Scribd is the shit too. Just downloaded Dynamic Hedging by Taleb