My face flushed hot as I looked around. My joke had gone down like a cup of sick.

to flitch logs

… her ornaments were the biggest; her hats, toques, berets, marabouts, and other fallals, always the most conspicuous.

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!