Happy New Year.

Year to you, all of our listeners, and most particularly to you, my friend David Swenson.

We've been at this for a while now and it just gets more pleasurable for me and we've had a great 2018 and you know my life

I say this sometimes on this program but you know it's true my life is like a freight train

I just have hurtled along from one thing to the next, one project, one place, one zip code, one taxi, one Uber, etc. And I don't have much time to reflect.

It's just, you know, you miss the train and now you're really in trouble.

So I love this show every year when we look back on the programs that we did, 52 of them, a fresh program every week, and we get a chance to sort of look back and, you know, I have to say I actually forget about some of them.

And then when I look at it, I think, oh yeah, that was a fun program.

We got to interview Joseph Ellis or, oh, that's when we had Pat Brodowski on and the tomato

kings of Florida that came on to help us.

Well, that was the program in which we talked about peaceful transition of power from one administration to the next.

Or the trilogy we did on James Madison, we only expected to do a single program on Madison

Then we got into it, but he kind of took over I mean Madison is something and so I really like this retrospective it really gives me a sense of where we've been and it also helps me to think

about what what didn't we talk about that we should have oh and there's so much

I got a letter from a young friend of mine who said,

Okay, enough Madison. How about Monroe? He always gets short shrift.

Well, speaking of letters. Yes, sir. And speaking of Madison. Yes, oh here it comes.

Yeah, I think I don't know I have not read this but I have a sense.

Oh, you know I have a sense of it.

It comes from Callahan Cole.

I have to say this letter made me laugh out loud.

I'll bet it did.

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