Good Lord.

Tomorrow I have to give a lecture on the causes of the Silly War and the buildup of the Union and Confederate navies.

Does anyone besides me see the absolute irony of this? I know I’ve probably mentioned it before, but the 19th century and I just never got along before. And yet – here I am.

Ah well – it’s a fun lecture, and luckily I’ve given it before so for once I’m not sweating it out the night before and frantically overpreparing. I’ll be talking to a great group of folks – it’s the LifeLong Learning Society of Christopher Newport University. These are mostly folks over the age of 55 who still want to take classes and learn things. They’re so much more engaged and interested than a class of college freshmen (unless you eat fire for the freshmen – then they’ll follow you anywhere and listen to you lecture on anything – and give you really really good evaluations in the process!) So let’s hope that tomorrow will be as good as my last few times with the LLS!

Gah! I should probably be a good citizen now and listen to the President and watch people leap up out of their seats like prairie dogs each time he says anything even remotely jingoistic.

later!