I spent the day on campus today to attend Lerone Martin’s MLK Day lecture, “Soul Force: The Challenge of Martin Lulther King.” It was such an excellent talk that I wanted to share it with you as well. You can access it here (and also receive access to the rest of the January Series lectures, if you’d like). If the name Lerone Martin sounds familiar, it may be because I’ve written about his book The Gospel of J.

In his book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, essayist Chuck Klosterman wrote an essay defending the 2001 Cameron Crowe film Vanilla Sky from its reputation as a creative failure. Specifically, he honed in on critic Owen Gleiberman’s D+ review in Entertainment Weekly that accused the film of being little more than “a cracked hall of mirrors taped together by a What is reality? cryogenics plot.” Nonplussed, Klosterman pointed out that all the best films of this era—from The Matrix and Fight Club to eXistenZ and Mulholland Drive asked that same question about the nature of our reality.

Nate Robinson was having a good start to the season. He was easily averaging 13 points off of the bench and was one of the New York Knicks' key bench guys in his second NBA season. He was playing well and feeling good with his game. But for whatever reason, on this particular night -on Nov. 20, 2006- he couldn’t get a shot off. He played 6 minutes in the first half and didn’t take a single shot.

Hi there! Welcome to A Letter a Day. If you want to know more about this newsletter, see "The Archive.” At a high level, you can expect to receive a memo/essay or speech/presentation transcript from an investor, founder, or entrepreneur (IFO) each edition. More here. If you find yourself interested in any of these IFOs and wanting to learn more, shoot me a DM or email and I’m happy to point you to more or similar resources.

The chess tables in Washington Square Park’s southwest corner have been occupied by a revolving cast of hustlers for more than 80 years. When a CAFÉ ANNE reader suggested I interview these fellows for a feature, I asked what she wanted to know. Boy, did she have questions! “How often do people win? Do they compete against each other? What were they doing before this? Or is this like a side hustle!