Going back in time to his birthday, November 11, 1922, this book is “a sidewalk strewn with junk, trash which [
Vonnegut] throws over [his] shoulder.” Vonnegut’s birthday, a “sacred day called
Armistice Day,” is dedicated to the soldiers who fought in the First World War. Now, Armistice Day is known as Veterans’ Day. “Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ Day is not,” he says. So, Vonnegut “throws out” Veterans’ Day but keeps Armistice Day because he doesn’t “want to throw away any sacred things.” Vonnegut clarifies what he considers sacred. “
Romeo and Juliet,” he says, and “all music.”