Case of the Cold Caper

There isn't much to add at this time. My cold is making essay writing rather interesting. As I stumble upon an excellent idea for my paper and sit down to write it, off my nose goes, running. So I have to pause, as I reach for some tissue, and hope in vain that the mighty tissue will prevent my nose from fleeing like a prisoner again. Nope. Instead I've only a few sentences to my credit and a bunch of loony ideas in the yard. My cold is starting to sound like the movie Lock Up or Shawshank Redemption.

The only good sentence to come out of this caper is the conclusion that:
The figures of Callimaco and Balthasar stand for a new class of men availing themselves of the developing urban, commercial base in sixteenth-century Europe.
Otherwise, I am still tinkering with the structure of the essay - setting it up so I write a HISTORY paper not an ENGLISH one. The other main comparison is that: While Mandragola represents an idealized portrait of a man as a commercial being, the letters of Magdalena and Balthasar reveal an altogether different picture of real life in sixteenth century Europe.

Wish me luck.

UPDATE: I had another restless night - barely 2 hours of tossing and turning - that has left me feeling miffed. I should have known that my nose would strike when all local pharmacies were closed, as if delighting in tweaking my sleepless brain.

Why does this seem like a real bad episode of Gogol's "The Nose"?