Why is a shithouse rat particularly crazy? Don't think we have them in England, least I've never seen one.

It's a line I got many years ago from an old friend who was a native Vermonter, which only a few of us are, and had lines like that he kept coming up with, and I kept stealing. I suppose the underlying theory is that even a rat has a number of options as to where to live, and must be crazy if he chooses a shithouse.

Did you hear about the folk guitar player who couldn't make enough money to find a place to live and was afraid he'd freeze during the winter? He finally found an old outhouse he could rent, and he could at least sleep there if he sort of curled up. But as work got harder to find, he couldn't even make the rent on that. But he survived the winter by subletting the basement to a banjo player...but I digress.

Peter.