Why Brass Billygoats????

Almost twenty years ago, my high school band director (we called him the DRL) was on one of his infamous tirades and yelled at a kid, "You don't have the sense the good Lord gave a brass billygoat." At the time, those of us out of the DRL's line of vision barely suppressed the guffaws at this further example of his tirades being the ultimate in non-thinking spew. I have no clue who the kid was that was being yelled at that day, I'm pretty sure he played trombone and he was probably a freshman. I don't even remember what the poor kid did or didn't do to set the DRL off. But those infamous words have stayed with me and never fail to bring a smile to my face. So when I begin to wonder if there is some sort of mass intelligence robbing virus infecting those around me, I pause and compare them to those legendary brass billygoats. It doesn't end my frustration but it does allow me to deal with it with a smile on my face.