Not really.

Again, interesting. It's just that . . .

OK, OK. So ... Did he really cut down the cherry tree?

Bingo.

Ask Frank Grizzard any - or all - of the above, and you're in good shape to know what the real deal was.

Grizzard, the senior associate editor of The Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia and a Waynesboro resident, has been researching Washington since 1989.

His most recent book on the life and times of the Father of Our Country - George Washington: A Biographical Companion - is billed as an "encyclopedia" of information on all things Washington.

With 250-plus entries arranged from A-Z, the book - which was released in May - certainly has the look and feel of an encyclopedia.

Frank Grizzard, author of George Washington: A Biographical Companion/Photo by Chris Graham

The author's encyclopedic knowledge of the subject helps there - though Grizzard, for his part, shies away from claiming to have any more kinship to Washington than any researcher would have with a research subject.

"Some historians will tell you that they know their subjects, but my feeling on that is, unless you're there, unless you've met them, you're never going to really know them," Grizzard told The Augusta Free Press in an interview last week.

"It's hard to say that you know your friends, and they're here with us now," Grizzard said.

"So many things are hidden, and it's not intentional, and that's in the here and now," Grizzard said.

"When you're talking about someone who died 200 years ago, so much more can be hidden that you will never know about."

That said, Grizzard's research - he has personally reviewed many of the 135,000-plus letters of Washington known to exist, including many of the more than 60,000 held under lock and key at the Library of Congress - has helped him learn much about the man who is arguably the most important figure in American history.

Asked what has most impressed him in his research on Washington, Grizzard has a quick answer - "his abilities as an administrator."

As a general leading troops into battle in the Revolution, for example, Washington was just as effective in dealing with the trivial - making sure that his armies had enough horses, arranging for supplies from a variety of sources, those kinds of things - as he was plotting military strategies, Grizzard said.

"You don't think of top generals on the battlefield today having to worry about the hubcaps on a Jeep, but the equivalent of that fell on Washington in his day, and he made sure the job was done," Grizzard said.

"He somehow found the time to run an army," Grizzard said, "and take care of the most mundane things."

Washington also was a prolific writer - judging by the 135,000 letters of his that we have to look through, including letters that are still coming in from a variety of sources.

For whatever reason, Grizzard said, Washington doesn't get the recogniton for his writing abilities that contemporaries like Thomas Jefferson have been bestowed.

"He was a very effective communicator. He didn't have the flowery language that Jefferson had, but he was very effective in getting his point across," Grizzard said.

"He even had a subtle sense of humor," Grizzard said, "which is something that you wouldn't expect to find yourself saying about him, but he did."

Indeed, Grizzard devotes an entire section of his encyclopedia - under H for humor - to the topic.

Other topics in George Washington include false teeth (did Washington really have wooden teeth?); slavery (and the strange reconciliation of Washington's status as the foremost champion of liberty with his status as a slaveowner); and . . . the cherry-tree incident.

So . . . Did little George Washington cut down the cherry tree at his boyhood home?

Read the book.

The answer is in there.