Louisville

Arrived in the nation's banking center for tobacco companies.  Hot as balls.

The AP readers are an odd group.  On the bus from the airport I sat with a guy who looks like he started teaching because JFK asked him to personally, but this is his first year reading so he's a rookie or "Acorn".  And then there are relatively young people like me.  Although as a "young" person, I am old.  Old enough to have just bought my first pair of progressive lenses.  Which give me a headache every time I put them on.

As I predicted the day after the exam, I will be reading the question I know the least about.  The question is:

Compare and contrast the ways that many Americans expressed their opposition to immigrants in the 1840s and 1850s with the ways that many Americans expressed their opposition to immigrants in the 1910s and 1920s.

I have worked hard over the years to fill in gaps in my knowledge about American history.  But the history of immigration is a gap that I haven't gotten around to yet and am in no hurry to do so. This question will be "answered" mostly by students who don't want to answer a question - they are being made to take the exam so that their school can tout the number of AP exams their students take.  So it will be a lot of non-answers, bad answers and the occasional brilliant essay from someone who really cares about the history of immigration in America.

The good news is that I might learn a little bit about immigration history.  But more likely I will hear a lot about the No-Nothing Party, NINA, the potato famine and if I'm lucky, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Gentleman's Agreement and the KKK.

As my reward for wading through four days of immigration essays, I get to spend the other three days with Dick Nixon.

Score!