The Mountain Goats is indeed a singleton set in all its many wonderful endeavors.

Googled, "you rope once" which tells me it "usually refers to jump rope, which offers quick cardio, fat burning and full-body muscle engagement in short bursts." I am now imagining you in your hotel room jumping rope like in those boxing movies while singing about the labyrinth of the Demon King.

Kurt Vonnegut on those who founded America way back when (the Founding Pirates):

"The chief weapon of the sea pirates however was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe until it was much too late how heartless and greedy they were." {"Breakfast of Champions")

Same as it ever was.

"So it goes."

"The chief weapon of the sea pirates however was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe until it was much too late how heartless and greedy they were." (Kurt Vonngegut, "Breakfast of Champions")

" . . .so the pirates could wreck the wiring, the bellows or the plumbing of a stubborn human being even when he was far, far away."

This, of course, is from Kurt Vonnegut, "Breakfast of Champions"

Same as it ever was.

" . . .which was a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulphur. They touched this seemingly listless powder with fire, and it turned violently into gas. This gas blew projectiles out of metal tubes at terrific velocities. The projectiles cut through meat and bone very easily . . . "

"When slavery was introduced onto the continent, the slaves were black. Color was everything. Here is how the pirates were able to take whatever they wanted from anybody else: they had the best boats in the world, and they were meaner than anybody else, and they had gunpowder . . ."

". . . and even after slavery was eliminated, because it was so embarrassing, they and their descendants continued to think of ordinary human beings as machines. The sea pirates were white. The people who were already on the continent when the pirates arrived were copper-colored."

Though I always think fondly of the inventor of cheese, way back in the way back when true geniuses walked the earth.

Yeah, man, thanks. I have rheumatoid arthritis, so pain is a constant companion.

I hang my head in shame.

You set me off looking around, and I found this marvelous quote from his book "Reading Writing": "After all, if literature is not for the reader a repertoire of femmes fatales and accursed beings, then it is not worth his time."

I just go with "my favorite animal", and only my grandchildren know what it is. After school pickup, my granddaughter also has me list off my second favorite animal, third favorite, fourth
. . . it goes on till we make it to her house. All 132 ranked animals are our secret.