He arrives early and talks to people, getting a sense of Americana.

For generations, many people have known that Jefferson fathered children by Sally Hemings, ... The much publicized results of DNA tests several years ago simply corroborate what had been common knowledge. Over the years, certain highly regarded scholars defended Jefferson's 'purity,' categorically denying claims that there had been a sexual relationship between master and slave. Since those 'revelations,' some of them have retreated from their former position of 'It didn't happen' only to insist that the affair between Hemings and Jefferson was an exception. But in fact such affairs, far from being exceptional, were fairly commonplace. That's part of what I wanted to convey by 'the American way' of the title.

I still love it. I am not tempted yet.

[He] put his foot in his mouth, and then we told him, 'As long as you have your foot in your mouth, take a big bite out of your toe.' And he backed down.

an opportunity to explore our country's uniquely conflicted and contradictory history of intimacy and separatism - America's love/hate relationship with itself.

Once we get her here and sit down and talk with her, we hope she'll cooperate with us.