Explain . . . etc.

Or, to quote the world history test proctor more completely, “Explain how the centralized Carthaginian mercantile structure affected small-village pre-Roman subsistence agriculture and herding, and support with pertinent data and examples, in no more than 7 pages.” Yikes!!

No wonder gape-mouthed Norbert is now envisioning the last four high school years of his life going down in flames. (And a permanent career of slop buckets and inquiring “Want fries with that?” looming far and away to his future horizons.)

Right now what’s racing through Norb’s buzz-cut cranium is, “What in the #$%@!^* did I ever do to you, Mr. Feeney?! Or are you just taking out on all of us the frustrations by which you are consumed each day you must face another four score of loud hormonal slovenly acne-ridden texting ear-budded teenagers who aren’t particularly interested in the details of what went on half-way around the globe several thousand years ago?!”

But soon Norbert will become resigned to the facts that, 1) nobody really understands diddly about the Carthaginians and the pre-Romans, so I can probably fudge this one and still not flunk, 2) it can’t be any more difficult than determining derivatives of functions I still don’t get, 3) Mom and Dad are paying me $50 for every B I can manage, so it’s certainly worth the effort to b.s. my way through this, and 4) Janie said she’d wait for me at the end of the visiting team bleachers after 5^th period today, and Janie is Way Hot!