Move variable initialisations closer to where they are actually used.
Do not initialise a variable which will always be initilised again before
its first use.
Reduce argument indentation.
Drop unhelpful comments.
User document may not be a Person instance, use a more neutral variable
name.
Avoid single-use locals.
Take advantage of zLOG.LOG's "error=True" idiom to not have to pull
exception information ourselves.