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Management and Literature

Ade’s THE FABLE OF THE KID WHO SHIFTED HIS IDEAL*

Posted on March 25, 2026March 25, 2026 by John Lubans

An A.D.T. (American District Telegraph) Kid carrying a Death Message marked “Rush” stopped in front of a Show Window containing a Picture of James J. Jeffries (a champion boxer) and began to weep bitterly. A kind-hearted Suburbanite happened to be passing along on his Way to the 5:42 Train. He was carrying a Dog Collar,…

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Ambrose Bierce’s “The Party Manager and the Gentleman”*

Posted on December 27, 2025December 27, 2025 by John Lubans

While reading Senator John Kennedy’s book, “How to Test Negative for Stupid” (2025) I harked back to Bierce’s biting commentary on American politicians. Bierce had no use for fools, so he would have been delighted to meet Mr. Kennedy, an Oxford graduate, a native of Louisiana and a top notch lawyer. Mr. Kennedy tells, in…

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Bierce’s Philosophers Three fable*

Posted on November 28, 2025November 29, 2025 by John Lubans

  A Bear, a Fox, and an Opossum were attacked by an inundation. “Death loves a coward,” said the Bear, and went forward to fight the flood. “What a fool!” said the Fox.  “I know a trick worth two of that.”  And he slipped into a hollow stump. “There are malevolent forces,” said the Opossum,…

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Caption: Illustration by Milo Winter for the "Aesop for Children", 1919.

Ambrose Bierce’s, The Wolf and the Feeding Goat*

Posted on October 31, 2025November 6, 2025 by John Lubans

A Wolf saw a Goat feeding at the summit of a rock, where he could not get at her. “Why do you stay up there in that sterile place and go hungry?” said the Wolf.  “Down here where I am the broken-bottle vine cometh up as a flower, the celluloid collar blossoms as the rose,…

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Krylov’s THE INQUISITIVE MAN*

Posted on August 5, 2025November 6, 2025 by John Lubans

  AN Inquisitive Man was one day met by a friend who cordially hailed him: “Good morning, my good fellow! And where do you come from?” “From the Museum of Natural History, where I have just spent three hours. I saw everything there was to see and examined it carefully. It was all so astonishing that…

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Blog Update: A Pilgrim’s Progress

Posted on July 31, 2025November 6, 2025 by John Lubans

As the reader may know, I have moved my 15-year-old blog from the Nucleus platform (no longer supported) to the WordPress platform which, I am told hosts 40% of the world’s blogs. My progress has been akin to traversing a squelching bog at midnight. . It’s been trial and error (or sink or swim) as…

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A Literary Curiosity: The Nimble Fat Man

Posted on July 8, 2025November 6, 2025 by John Lubans

Recently reading an old-timey Ellery Queen mystery, I stumbled across yet another nimble fat man allusion: “As the District Attorney closed the door the occupant of the room wheeled about with astonishing agility for a man of his weight.” This cliché appears in The Roman Hat Mystery (1929). The “astonishing agility” reminded me of a…

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Fable of the Hedgehog and the Birds*

Posted on June 30, 2025November 6, 2025 by John Lubans

“A small elephant is not a rabbit.”

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Krylov’s fable: The Oracle

Posted on June 25, 2025November 6, 2025 by John Lubans

(This is an experiment using Word to put up a post on my new platform. The text below is one of Krylov’s fables; there are many more at my former blog, along with information on who he was here So far, WordPress is a maddening experience. Like the IRS, “simple” is a word they do…

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John Lubans

John Lubans (WSJ portrait)
WSJ rendering from a photo by Eva Baughman.

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