Flexing my bullshit muscle

I'm writing my first term paper in almost two years. The topic? An analysis of the economy of Brazil.

Would you like to take a stab at guessing how many books there are in print in the United States concerning Brazil's economy? Like, two. Now, would you like to guess how many of those are available in the whole of Northeast Alabama? Yeah.

There are plenty of periodicals out there, most of them making fun of Brazil's insanely unbalanced distribution of wealth. But I have to look those up and then get the microfilm or the microfische or God forbid the bound volumes. Then I have to sift through them to find useful information and then I have to wash, rinse, and repeat.

So basically I'm just being a whiny-butt.

But I'm discovering that if you know a little bit about economics, some key terms, the basic problems in the socio-political realm of the country, and a skeletal history, you can pretty much make up the rest and sound surprisingly convincing. Not that I would do that. Then again, we're talking about the person who, her senior year in college, got a perfect score on a five-page book review she wrote after reading the back cover.

But kids, you shouldn't do that, because it takes a lot more effort to be creative than it does to regurgitate what someone else has already written. After all, why practice bullshitting? We all know that's just not a marketable life skill.

I know. I should never be allowed to have children. Or babysit yours. So don't ask. Ever.