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Missive #825 Published 6 Nov 2026

164. What Is Bread?

Some renowned wise men challenged Nasruddin to a contest. Nasruddin agreed, provided he could ask the first question.
This was his question: What is bread?
The wise men wrote their answers on pieces of paper. Nasruddin then read their answers aloud:
Bread is made with flour and water.
Bread is my favorite food.
Bread is a gift of God.
Bread is delicious.
Bread is baked in an oven.
Bread is the staff of life.
Nasruddin sighed. “These supposed wise men cannot even agree what bread is! Why then should we listen to what they say about matters of real difficulty?”

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Missive #824 Published 5 Nov 2026

Gunfighter Nation completes Richard Slotkin’s trilogy, begun in Regeneration Through Violence and continued in Fatal Environment, on the myth of the American frontier. Slotkin examines an impressive array of sources - fiction, Hollywood westerns, and the writings of Hollywood figures and Washington leaders - to show how the racialist theory of Anglo-Saxon ascendance and superiority (embodied in Theodore Roosevelt’s The Winning of the West), rather than Frederick Jackson Turner’s thesis of the closing of the frontier, exerted the most influence in popular culture and government policy making in the twentieth century. He argues that Roosevelt’s view of the frontier myth provided the justification for most of America’s expansionist policies, from Roosevelt’s own Rough Riders to Kennedy’s counterinsurgency and Johnson’s war in Vietnam.

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Missive #823 Published 4 Nov 2026

This posting is mostly about Sunday which is not all that important or exciting but I'll report on it anyway.

Since it was Time Change Day I did most of my device time changes on Saturday before going to bed. That had me getting up with the 'new' time which was going to be the same time in Arizona which did not do any changing.

With the time change I arrived at Ramona's Cafe in Lordsburg, NM about 15 minutes before they opened at the 'new' time. I got a veggie omelet which was not on their menu but they did manage to cook one up for me. After breakfast I drove a couple miles to Love's to fill Desperado's tank with gas and continue down the road.

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Missive #822 Published 1 Nov 2026

Continuing The Federalist Papers

Federalist No. 85
Concluding Remarks
Author: Alexander Hamilton
To the People of the State of New York:

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Missive #821 Published 30 Oct 2026

163. The Eagle Jaliz

A scholar was boasting about his knowledge of Islamic traditions. What color was Mohammad’s horse? The scholar knew. What is the favorite food of the angels? He knew that too.
Eager to display his knowledge, Nasruddin shouted out, “Jaliz!”
The scholar stared at him coldly. “Is that some kind of name?”
“It’s the name of the eagle who swooped down and carried Moses away,” replied Nasruddin.
“But there is no record of an eagle swooping down and carrying Moses away.”
“Well,” retorted Nasruddin, “then Jaliz is the name of the eagle who did not swoop down and carry Moses away.”

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Missive #820 Published 26 Oct 2026

Today's posting is another experiment using SVG images that has given me some understanding of how to draw a circle. What I ended up with here is not all that great but what I have learned has been very good and I hope will be useful in my next experiment.

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Missive #819 Published 25 Oct 2026

Continuing The Anti-Federalist Papers

Federal Farmer XVIII
by Federal Farmer

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Missive #818 Published 24 Oct 2026

I have been playing with some more animation code and wanted to show off my latest accomplishment. This was done for the most part on my own with Claude critiquing my work. Then after getting it to work on a …

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Missive #817 Published 23 Oct 2026

162. The Turban of a Scholar

People who could not read would sometimes bring letters to Nasruddin so that he could read the letters to them.
One man had brought Nasruddin a letter to read, but the handwriting was terrible.
“This is the worst handwriting I have ever seen,” said Nasruddin. “I can’t read this letter.”
The man was indignant. “You wear the turban of a scholar, but you can’t even read a simple letter from my brother.”
Nasruddin pulled the turban off his head and threw it at the man. “Go ahead! Take the turban,” he said, “and see if you can do any better!”

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Missive #816 Published 20 Oct 2026

In spite of what the book promo claims I did not like this book as much as the travel books that Twain wrote. As I understand the differences in this book he has used Juvenalian satire whereas in his travel books he used Horatian satire. As the promo says it is one of the first works to feature time travel and it is one of Twain's most unique.

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