brian: manasseh cutler. david: he also went to yale. found out for three years he lived on martha's vineyard running a store there, and two of his sons were born there on the vineyard not very far from our house. near edgartown. and to get to ohio, you have to him go through pittsburgh, my hometown. so it was in the stars. i had to do it. brian: how long is the perfect speech? in minutes. david: in my judgment or in general? brian: in your judgment. david: no more than 20 minutes. brian: why? david: because you are part of a ceremony, the ceremony has many elements, and you don't want to hog more space than you should. i have never been told how long or short my speech could be. if i am invited to come to a university to address a general audience, then it is expected that your talk will run about 45 minutes. brian: let's look at a speech that was given back in 1989 to kick off this book. you gave this speech in the joint sessions of the house. how often has that happened to a historian? david: someone who is not in the congress is very