IF you find yourself sitting in Memorial Hall this week, waiting for inspiration on a Byzantine history exam, recite this eight-word incantation:

The beauty of exams is that they end.

Of course, such advice won't accomplish anything in particular. It's not efficacious just true. But once exams do end. after you've dotted the last i and left your pride on question 3, wait for that remarkable neurological phenomenon that occurs in every undergraduate.

Call it the Great Purge.

Don't think you're immune; no one is. It's rather capricious, this academic anemia. The more you study, the more you forget afterwards.

So before I fall victim to the trauma of exams and the subsequent housecleaning upstairs, I've decided to sort out a few random thoughts. In a week or two, they might be gone, swept out with the major battles at Constantinople.

Squelch the Liberals' Boutique

President Bush scheduled the Panama invasion for December 20, the day after the Crimson editorial staff had packed up and vacated to the farthest corners of the liberal world for the holidays.

Coincidence? I don't think so. The last thing Mr. Bush needed, of course, was a fiery diatribe from the crowd at 14 Plympton St. to take all the gratification out of it.

The Wisdom of Ronald

Listening to the radio can indeed be an edifying experience. During an interview with a CBS syndicate, former president Ronald W. Reagan recalled the assassination attempt on his life by John Hinckley, Jr., and proclaimed Hinckley "not on a normal basis."

This is the same gentleman who brought us, ten years ago, the meaningful "are you better off now than you were four years ago?" and the bottom line "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Is it an illusion, or is the Reagan rhetoric losing its profundity?

Don't Hold Your Breath

I've been waiting a long time--going on three years now--for a one semester introductory economics course. After surveying the course supplement for next term, I see I'll have to keep on waiting.