What is kudzu?

Since so many of my Thursday Thirteen readers have asked, "What is Kudzu?" I thought I'd post the explanation here. Kudzu is evil. Okay, not really. It is a vine brought into the southern United States to be used to control erosion, particularly around hills and mountains. What the flippin' idjit who brought it in never bothered to find out was that 1) it grows like 4 feet a day (yes, really), 2) it's harder to kill than the rumor of an Elvis sighting, and 3) to get rid of it you have to dig up the tap root which in many cases is 4-6 feet deep. There's a joke that I've heard that goes something like this:
boy: Where's granny?
Grandpa: She was going to sit in her rocker and take a nap.
boy: Where'd she move her chair to.
Granpa points to a spot which is now covered in kudzu.
Granpa: Damn, I'm gonna miss her.