Missive #442 Published 9 February 2025
Continuing The Federalist Papers.
Federalist No. 40
The Powers of the Convention to Form a Mixed Government Examined and Sustained
Author: James Madison
To the People of the State of New York:
Missive #441 Published 7 February 2025
73. Nasruddin and the Tailor
Nasruddin went into a tailor’s shop. “I’d like to try on a pair of trousers.”
The tailor gave him the trousers, and Nasruddin tried them on.
“They’re not quite right,” he said, giving them back to the tailor. “I’d like to try a jacket now, please.”
Nasruddin liked the jacket very much. “I’ll take it!” he said, and then he began to walk out the door.
“But wait!” shouted the tailor. “You haven’t paid!”
“I exchanged the trousers for the jacket,” Nasruddin explained.
“But you didn’t pay for the trousers!”
“Of course not!” said Nasruddin. “I didn’t want the trousers."
Missive #440 Published 5 February 2025
The essential skill of creating and maintaining new businesses—the art of the entrepreneur—can be summed up in a single word: managing. Born of Grove’s experiences at one of America’s leading technology companies (as CEO and employee number three at Intel), High Output Management is equally appropriate for sales managers, accountants, consultants, and teachers, as well as CEOs and startup founders. Grove covers techniques for creating highly productive teams, demonstrating methods of motivation that lead to peak performance.
Missive #439 Published 2 February 2025
Continuing The Anti-Federalist Papers
Cato II
by George Clinton
To the People of the State of New York:
Missive #438 Published 31 January 2025
72. Nasruddin’s Ladder
Nasruddin was fond of fruit, and he was also fond of raiding his neighbor’s orchards.
One night he had just lowered a ladder into someone’s orchard in order to raid it, but the orchard’s owner caught him in the act.
“What are you doing with that ladder?” the man shouted at him.
“Are you talking about this ladder?” asked Nasruddin. “Well, to tell the truth, I’m just trying to sell this ladder.”
“You can’t sell a ladder here!” the man replied.
“I beg to differ,” said Nasruddin indignantly. “A ladder can be sold anywhere! Do you want to buy it?”
Missive #437 Published 30 January 2025
This is a great suspense/murder mystery. Everyone becomes a suspect before the end of the book. I need to do some research on other books by this author; if she has others like this one they will go on my To Read List.
Missive #436 Published 28 January 2025
A New York Times –bestselling historian charts how and why societies from ancient Greece to the modern era chose to utterly destroy their foes, and warns that similar wars of obliteration are possible in our time. In The End of Everything , military historian Victor Davis Hanson narrates a series of sieges and sackings that span the age of antiquity to the conquest of the New World to show how societies descend into barbarism and obliteration.
Missive #435 Published 27 January 2025
The Human Situation is a collection of lectures delivered by Huxley at [University of California] Santa Barbara in 1959. The topics covered range from the nature of man to the foundations of language, with discourses on religion and nationalism thrown in for good measure. Huxley brings his penetrating and prescient insights to bear on his topics, addressing them not as universal truths to be uncovered but rather as open questions to be examined from all angles. Of particular interest is his treatment of the ancient links between mysticism ('the religion of immediate experience') and mainstream Christian denominationalism ('religion as the manipulation of symbols'). The Human Situation stands on its own merits as a well-written, accessible text on issues that, even today, have broad impacts on public policy, human health, and social order. This book also serves as a useful primer or jumping-off point for further forays into philosophy, religion, and the life of the individual in modern times.
Missive #434 Published 26 January 2025
Continuing The Federalist Papers
Federalist No. 39
The Conformity of the Plan to Republican Principles
Author: James Madison
To the People of the State of New York:
Missive #433 Published 24 January 2025
71. Nasruddin the Nightingale
Nasruddin had broken into an apricot orchard and climbed a tree.As he was stuffing his pockets with apricots, the owner of the orchard discovered him.
“What are you doing up in that tree?” the man shouted.
Nasruddin said nothing.
“I repeat: what are you doing up there?”
“Are you talking to me?” asked Nasruddin.
“Yes, you!”
“I’m just a nightingale,” said Nasruddin. “This tree is my home.”
“If you’re a nightingale, sing!” said the man.
Nasruddin sang. He sang very badly.
“You don’t sound like a nightingale!”
“I’m a young nightingale,” said Nasruddin. “I’m still just learning to sing.”