[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Fish:

I realize now that my "lean years" statement can be somewhat misinterpreted. Unlike many other companies, Two Plus Two was always profitable. It's just that to expand and grow all profits plus some other money I had and what I could borrow were going in.

In addition, and this is very true today, we always have a backlog of outstanding payments. It takes most of our big buyers three to four months to pay up. So while often short on cash, I knew that within the next few weeks more money would show up. But it did make it annoying if I had a few losing nights.

One thing to keep in mind, I always had the option not to do another book or update a current one, and thus either save or put off that investment. This would have allowed the lean years to have ended sooner, but then again our family of books today would not be as complete, and I never had any doubt that in the long run Two Plus Two was going to be a big success.

Best wishes,
Mason