It's that time again...

Time to wonder what I could have been thinking when I began this odyssey through academia. Three weeks to go, and summer vacation. But first, finals. Eeeeyoouu. They aren't going to be any more difficult than midterms, though two will be at 7 AM in the morning, how awful is that. Two days in a row, getting up at 5 freaking AM! That's the freaking middle of the night, isn't it? And I am in the throes of a book response to a Gore Vidal overwritten, very pithy and highly opinionated rendering of the character of our founding fathers. Apparently Washington was a kind of bumbling, humble but very tall man, a mediocrity on the battlefield who had the fortunate help of French Gen. LaFayette and even more mediocre resistance on the English side with Howe and Cornwallis. His main accomplishment in his presidency was to keep the new nation out of war with the French and lead an army of 12,000 against about 20 moonshiners in western Pennsylvania, the so-called Whiskey Rebellion. And John Adams was a pompous rotund little guy who was sure of the moral and intellectual supremacy of New Englanders over the Cavaliers of Virginia, which included Washington, and Jefferson, of course. Jefferson was a Francophile, a Republican who insisted on the Bill of Rights before his state ratified the Constitution. I liked him the best; he seemed more principled than most of the other characters, though all were riddled with self-interest, particularly where property was concerned. The American aristocracy consisted of the landed gentry. That is why we have a Republic and not a Democracy in this Nation. And, Alexander Hamilton is portrayed as just this side of a treasonous snake. His self-interest bordered on the fanatical. Dear Gore, he is such a guy. If I can just get this abominable paper written (I just finished the book about an hour ago, and diddled up a couple of pages), I am going to be so happy. Studying for the Geology test on Monday is nothing. Really.