Missive #624 Published 28 December 2025
Continuing The Federalist Papers
Federalist No.63
The Senate Continued
Author: Alexander Hamilton or James Madison
To the People of the State of New York
Missive #623 Published 27 December 2025
The review that I have copied was written soon after the book was published in French. It has subsequently been published in 21 other languages but not in English. The author of the review "protests too much" in my opinion and I think that is one of the reasons it has not been translated into English. The Google translation that I read was poor but I think Todd made good points.
Missive #622 Published 26 December 2025
119. Nasruddin Looks for Work
Nasruddin desperately needed a job. He visited every shop, every workshop, every warehouse seeking employment.Finally, he came to the warehouse of a merchant with a shady reputation.
“Do you have any job openings?” Nasruddin asked.
“Well,” said the merchant, “I am looking for a bookkeeper. How’s your arithmetic?”
“My arithmetic is excellent!” said Nasruddin enthusiastically.
“I’ll have to give you a test first. Are you ready?”
Nasruddin nodded.
“How much is two plus two?”
Nasruddin thought for a moment and then said in a low voice, “How much do you want it to be?”
“You’re hired!” said the merchant.
Missive #620 Published 24 December 2025
This is the forth book in the series with one more to read. This one is far and away more a chick book than the previous three. Very little military action or suspense and more bodice ripping. I'll read the last book in the series and then move on to the author's Wild Country series and hope that she moves toward more suspense.
Missive #619 Published 22 December 2025
This is a very interesting book. It might be a bit over the top with some of the medical and scientific terminology but is readable. Much like with the COVID jab you need not follow the science regarding saturated fats just follow the money.
Missive #618 Published 21 December 2025
Continuing The Anti-Federalist Papers
Federal Farmer VI
by Federal Farmer
Missive #617 Published 19 December 2025
118. The Poor Man in the Coffeehouse
Nasruddin saw a stranger in the coffeehouse who looked very sad.“Is something the matter?” Nasruddin asked him.
“I used to be rich!” said the man. “I lived in a mansion, and I had many servants. But I’ve lost it all: money, mansion, servants, everything. I can barely pay for this coffee. Soon I’ll be begging on the streets. I’m sick with worry.”
“Oh, you won’t have to feel like this for long,” Nasruddin assured him.
The man looked at Nasruddin eagerly. “Do you mean I’ll get rich again?”
“No,” said Nasruddin. “I mean you’ll get used to being poor.”
Missive #616 Published 17 December 2025
Keillor leads here from his strength—humor based on a true grip on the real—in this epic of Lake Wobegon, the imaginary small Minnesota town celebrated in Keillor's weekly monologues on "Prairie Home Companion," his show on Public Radio. Keillor's fans will grab it, but word should get out to people who never heard of him: like Mark Twain, Keillor is a highly sophisticated teller of tales (his stories have appeared in The New Yorker) who gets to the essence of everyday America. There are some belly laughs in "Wobegon," many chuckles—and always the pleasure of recognition. The book casually mixes autobiographical stretches with stories about the inhabitants of the town that can't be found on the Minnesota map, along with its history and mores.
Missive #615 Published 15 December 2025
Author Gene Logsdon—whom Wendell Berry once called “the most experienced and best observer of agriculture we have”—has a notion: That it is a little easier for gardeners and farmers to accept death than the rest of the populace. Why? Because every day, farmers and gardeners help plants and animals begin life and help plants and animals end life. They are intimately attuned to the food chain. They understand how all living things are seated around a dining table, eating while being eaten. They realize that all of nature is in flux.
Gene Everlasting contains Logsdon’s reflections, by turns both humorous and heart-wrenching, on nature, death, and eternity, all from a contrary farmer’s perspective. He recounts joys and tragedies from his childhood in the 1930s and ‘40s spent on an Ohio farm, through adulthood and child-raising, all the way up to his recent bout with cancer, always with an eye toward the lessons that farming has taught him about life and its mysteries.