This will be an experiment, so just let me indulge myself with something having nothing to do with Classical Values....

My car has been occasionally running a little funny, and the "check engine" light has been going on intermittently. My mechanic couldn't figure out what it was; said it could be "a hundred things." Typical. Have you ever felt that doing something would be a complete waste of time, but you did it anyway? The only thing you can really do with modern cars is change the spark plugs and real basic stuff like that, and I thought, "Come on, you know the spark plugs won't affect a damn thing; they're only a year and a half old anyway!" But I thought, what the hell. So I pulled all six, and found this one -- so encrusted with deposits as to be shorting out! Here it is, in the arms of the evil Emperor!

I hope you can see the encrustation. It's so covered as to be literally shorted out.

No gap!

Empires fail because of little things like that.

And no, I am not looking for a Latin phrase. Not right now! (I am not "stalling" either.)