I have been re-enrolled at Sydney University (now that my abscess has gone and I'm about to start driving again - I hope). I've selected my two units for semester one next year (still a part time student unless I win the lottery). I'll take American Foundations and Literature & Cinema. I've started reading for the first unit by taking down from my shelf a copy of Hugh Brogan's History of the United States of America, which I've owned for more than twenty years and carried around with wherever I've lived. Did I know it would come in handy one day? No. But there you are. I've reached 1775. I wonder what happens next?