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Author name: Ed Frey

Missive #595 Published 14 November 2025

Nasruddin had a dream. In his dream, an angel was counting golden coins into Nasruddin’s hand, one at a time. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight… finally the angel had counted out nine coins.
“If you could give me ten coins,” Nasruddin said to the angel, “I would be able to pay all my debts.”
The angel then looked at him angrily and disappeared.
Nasruddin awoke from his dream. He looked, and saw there were no golden coins in his hand.
“Come back, angel!” shouted Nasruddin. “Please come back! I’ve thought it over, and I’ll take the nine!”

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Missive #594 Published 11 November 2025

From the bestselling author of Public Enemies & The Big Rich, account of the battle between the FBI & revolutionary movements of the '70s: Weathermen, The Symbionese Liberation Army, The FALN, The Black Liberation Army. The names seem quaint now, but then bombings by domestic underground groups were daily occurrences. The FBI combated these & other groups as nodes of a single revolutionary underground dedicated to the violent overthrow of the USA. Burrough's Days of Rage recreates an atmosphere almost unbelievable decades later, conjuring a time of native-born radicals, often nice middle-class kids, smuggling bombs into skyscrapers & detonating them inside the Pentagon & the Capitol, at a Boston courthouse & a Wall Street restaurant.

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Missive #593 Published 9 November 2025

Continuing The Anti-Federalist Papers

Federal Farmer III
by Federal Farmer

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Missive #592 Published 7 November 2025

112. Nasruddin and the Baker

Nasruddin owed the baker money, so when the baker saw Nasruddin on the street, he said, “Come with me!” and he led Nasruddin into the bakery.
“Look!” the baker said, pointing at the account book. “You owe me three silver coins.”
Nasruddin nodded, looking at the account book. “I see my brother-in-law owes you five,” he remarked. “I was on my way to see him just now; I’ll get him to pay also!”
“Excellent!” replied the baker.
“He owes you five, and I owe three,” Nasruddin said. “So you can give me two coins now, and that will square things.”

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Missive #591 Published 6 November 2025

Newly minted doctor Jane McGill is in hell.
Not literally, of course. But between her drug addict patients, sleepless nights on call, and battling wits with the sadistic yet charming Sexy Surgeon, Jane can’t imagine an afterlife much worse than her first month of medical internship at County Hospital.
And then there’s the devil herself: Jane’s senior resident Dr. Alyssa Morgan. When Alyssa becomes absolutely hell-bent on making her new interns pay tenfold for the deadly sin of incompetence, Jane starts to worry that she may not make it through the year with her soul or her sanity still intact.

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Missive #590 Published 5 November 2025

We remember World War II as a struggle between good and evil, with Hitler propelling events and the Allied powers saving the day. But Hitler's armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit the spoils of war. That role belonged to Joseph Stalin. Hitler's genocidal ambition may have unleashed Armageddon, but as celebrated historian Sean McMeekin shows, the conflicts that emerged were the result of Stalin's maneuverings, orchestrated to unleash a war between capitalist powers in Europe and between Japan and the Anglo-American forces in the Pacific. Meanwhile, the United States and Britain's self-defeating strategy of supporting Stalin and his armies at all costs allowed the Soviets to conquer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism.

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Missive #589 Published 3 November 2025

The drive to the Elephant Butte camp was 266 miles with a couple of slight detours. I stopped in Lordsburg and filled Desperado with gas and was very disappointed with the miles per gallon that I saw. Maybe the next fill up will be better? I certainly hope so. Then a couple miles down the road I stopped at Ramona's for breakfast which will be my breakfast stop if I'm going to have breakfast in Lordsburg. As I was going out of Deming I drove through a RV Park that I was considering. Based on the drive through it is no longer on my list as a possible stay.

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Missive #588 Published 2 November 2025

Continuing The Federalist Papers.

Federalist No.59
Concerning the Power of
Congress to Regulate the Election of Members
Author: Alexander Hamilton
To the People of the State of New York:

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Missive #587 Published 31 October 2025

Nasruddin had been at the dentist all morning, and his wife wondered what was taking so long.
Finally, Nasruddin walked through the door, grinning happily, his mouth wide open.
His wife gasped in shock. “Nasruddin!” she exclaimed. “What has happened to your teeth?”
“Well, you know how much that dentist charges,” Nasruddin replied. “He wanted a gold coin to remove my bad tooth. A gold coin! It’s outrageous. So we haggled and haggled, back and forth, back and forth, and I finally persuaded him to take out four more teeth. So I got five removed for the price of one!”

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Missive #586 Published 31 October 2025

Isolated but far from impotent, Sharpe and his trusty riflemen hold off vast Napoleonic forces in the Portuguese wine country. With years to go before the Corsican Menace is safely quarantined, there is never any doubt but that intrepid, supremely resourceful Richard Sharpe, amiable hero of 18 previous outings (Sharpe's Prey, 2001, etc.), will prevail, though Cornwell, always using good history and always explaining where he has fantasized, never fails to engross and beguile. Sharpe is every gentle reader's secret vision of his or her own self: the victim of idiotic superiors, the idol of his troops, unsure of his place in the world, utterly sure of his place in battle. And doesn't he go to the loveliest places! Now he's in greater Oporto, home to the great red wine and the great English red wine–exporting families, where Bonaparte's troops threaten the city and such lovely citizens as Kate Savage, heiress to House Beautiful and a port fortune, who has disappeared.

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