Our deal was that I take care of him healthwise, after his hospital stay, but I went out instead, and we talked only occasionally.

Homer, to whom the Muses did carouse A great deep cup with heav'nly nectar fill'd, The greatest, deepest cup in Jove's great house, (For Jove himself had so expressly will'd) He drank off all, nor let one drop be spill'd; Since when, his brain that had before been dry, Became the well-spring of all poetry.

[T]he debate is a sublime mismatch: He's expected to whip this guy, but good.

But, as luck would have it, scarcely had he started to row his boat again when an oarlock broke, and so it took him the best part of an hour to make the trip.