After sluicing through the arpeggios of Coltrane’s “Countdown” with great alacrity, he burst into an incongruous quote from “Billy Boy,” cracking up the crowd.

But heavy rain can turn to torrents sluicing off sun-baked desert or pavement into miles of flood channels constructed to protect homes and businesses.

Football often gets a bad rap for its wastefulness and greed, its inane use of all that foaming, sluicing cash.