My life is one of effortless ease, with the soft lyrical music of songbirds lilting in the near distance as I educate my princely children and we all dance joyously towards their future mastery of the universe.

But, once in a while, or perhaps daily, something will occur at my house which delivers me to earth with a resounding thud.

As I have been giving oral quizzes over the whole year’s material in history, I asked the question “Why was this period in history called the High Middle Ages?”

The response I received:  “Because of all the Opium the Crusaders brought back to Europe.”

WRONG!