As evidenced by the fact that I just woke up in the middle of the night without the pressing need to record symbols on index cards. Only things pressing, in fact, were 8 whippet paws on my back. I'm now at the phase where I'm tinkering with and smoothing the 26 or so pages I've written as a way to delay having to finish that last section, which is going to require some major compacting, and then, yunno, concluding. Hooray.
Last night in lieu of compacting or concluding, I virtually helped my niece with some research for her social studies report and poster on Ancient Greece. Since most all the 
kids will want to do the Olympics, we decided that schooling in Athens would be an interesting focus. My sister said she and Sarah tried to find good illustrations in my book, but that all the vase scenes and sculptures showed naked people, which might not be appropriate in Tennessee's public schools or for the age group. So I dug up the three remaining school scenes where everybody has on their chitons and sent them along. Here's one of Heracles/Hercules being escorted to school by his music teacher Linus. I omitted the legend that once when Linus was beating Hercules for being a not-so-hot student, Hercules, fed up, bludgeoned his teacher to death with his lyre. That detail might not appeal to Sarah's social studies teacher. I love that Greece still issued a stamp bearing their images in 1977. And here Linus appears to be nagging him about doing his homework. [update: the person accompanying Heracles might also be his paidogogos or a servant in charge of taking him to school; others say it's his nanny or nurse, Geropsos]
I also described in an email how boys were required to recite from Homer's epics as a way of producing allegiance to Greek values. Kind of like the pledge of allegiance, I said, but longer. And for that matter, more plot-driven.
All the gathering and sifting took about an hour. If she doesn't get an A, folks, I'm doomed.
