The old volcanistic metaphor is especially apt: a thick, hard crust of earth, beneath which bubbles, hot liquid magma pressing for release above.

Black humor is like food. Not everyone gets it.

O! say does that star-spangled Banner yet wave, / O'er the land of the Free, and the home of the brave?

Understand: I'm a roughcast fly fisherman, an empirical self-taught duffer.