Mark didn't miss a beat. 'Sure, coach,' he said. 'Eighth man is my best position.' Kitch whipped around to Morné. 'I told you he could play eighth man,' he said.

Indeed, in the 1854 draft of Tristan he planned to have Parzival visit the dying knight, and both operas display the same macabre obsession with bloody gore and festering wounds.

[…] the chief, great, wise & learned man of the holy congregation of the Sephardim, met together with the chiefs & leaders of the holy congregation of the Ashchenazim Perushim & Khasidim, who reside here in Jerusalem our holy & glorious city (may she be built & established!) […]

I was able to make a grab at the center rope with my toes. After a torturesome struggle, I pulled myself upright again. I hung there for a few seconds, then turned to see my Braves shouting encouragement and sending up birdlike wails.