[mst]

In perl I'd just write -

    return $some_loaded_thing->fairly_descriptive_but_necessarily_long_name(
      $not_very_long_argument
    );

Surely python has something approximating an equivalent?

[collyw]

Come on, you can get rid of the return statement if it is the last line in a subroutine.

[viraptor]

sorry, it was the return itself that was making it too long already. Basically assigning it locally took just exactly the number of characters, return was sticking out by one or two.