John Adams

Last night around 3:30am, I had been working on my paper for several hours and my brain was starting to hurt.  One might think that the statistical analysis of a paper would take the longest out of all other sections, but in fact because I am using a dataset I am already very familiar with, plugging some data into STATA, running some models, and interpreting the results took very little time.  Instead what I have been struggling with is writing the front end of the paper: the justification for why this is an important problem, the theory behind my models, and weaving together the rather disjointed literature on religion and attitudes on foreign policy (I'm looking at evangelicals' attitudes towards Iraq in the 2006 elections).

At any rate, around 3:30, I was sorely in need of a break.  I couldn't find anything interesting on TV or On Demand.  But after spending the previous part of the day reviewing with my students' for their 170 final (large parts of which focus on the federalist papers, federalism, and the design of the Constitution), I was tempted to subscribe to HBO and finally watch the John Adams miniseries that I have heard so many good things about.  So I did.

I've only watched the first two episodes (after all I still have papers to write!) but they are really good.  I feel like I am the last person on earth to watch this miniseries, but if in fact you have not watched it yet, you may want to.  Not entirely certain how I feel about Paul Giamatti in this role (I really like him as an actor, but I have trouble not looking at him as Paul Giamatti).  Laura Linney, otoh, is perfect as one of my personal heroes, Abigail Adams.