stuck with

I can guess what might be the problem here, because I've done it:

I've found that often when I add init code to loadView, I end up with an infinite stack trace

Don't read self.view in -loadView. Only set it, don't get it.

The self.view property accessor calls -loadView if the view isn't currently loaded. There's your infinite recursion.

The usual way to build the view programmatically in -loadView, as demonstrated in Apple's pre-Interface-Builder examples, is more like this:

UIView *view = [[UIView alloc] init...];
...
[view addSubview:whatever];
[view addSubview:whatever2];
...
self.view = view;
[view release];

And I don't blame you for not using IB. I've stuck with this method for all of Instapaper and find myself much more comfortable with it than dealing with IB's complexities, interface quirks, and unexpected behind-the-scenes behavior.