"Cyli" wrote in message
I'm still lost in visions of a rope fitting snugly around the earth. I
try seeing the supporting structure needed to keep the rope from
dipping into the oceans it must cross

See, everybody has a little bit of "engineer" in them. :-)

It's as bad for me as the one about the conveyor belt with an airplane
on it and the belt increasing speed as the plane does, so it,
supposedly, can't take off.

Hey, wait a minute; that only works if the plane achieves its takeoff
velocity through traction on the belt. (The pilots here will no doubt
correct me if I'm wrong, but) ground speed has nothing to do with takeoff.

Hopelessly analytical,
Joe F.