Making a Comeback in 2024
It's been a While . . .
I
Good Morning.
Happy New Year.
It’s been a while. But I’m back at it again, whatever and everything “it” is.
I’m taking another shot at communicating, sharing, and otherwise working to connect with people.
Once upon a time, you signed up to help me along on my journey. I’m hoping you’ll still be willing to come along for the ride.
So, let’s all greet 2024 with hope and optimism. I’m going to start this year with an effort to make it just a little more interesting for all of us.
II
If you go to a cocktail party or any group mixer, you are likely to meet someone you don’t know. After briefly exchanging names and pleasantries, you’ll face this question: “So what do you do?”
So go ahead. Ask me. “What do you do, Ridge?”
Here is an incomplete summary of “what I do” right now.
Writing: Books and Such
1. MuchAdoDotCom
I’ve added a preface and extensive notes to the play I wrote in 2013. The name is revised, I have an engaging and expressive cover, and I am doing a line edit—punching it up. There’s more—a preface, notes to the director, designers and cast. Background about some of the more radical ideas in the script like beatboxing and call and response with the audience.
I will be publishing it in book form in January, sharing it with anyone interested, and hoping to get a reading or—unlikely but one can wish—a production.
The play is a riff on William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. It’s original title was MuchAdoAboutNothingDotCom: A Play with Rhymes for Modern Times.
I started thinking about it—ten years after its first incarnation and looked at it again. I think it is pretty darn good. It deserves some attention. I commissioned a cover and changed the title. Now the title, MuchAdoDotCom, is more accurate because the play is not about “nothing.” It’s got some real substance, touching on issues ranging from age discrimination and patent infringement to the perils of venture capitalism.
Anyone interested in being an early reader—send me an e-mail message. I’ll get you in the loop.
2. The Money Class Books
This involves follow-up on The Richest Man in New Babylon and The Rules. The next books, short and designed for e-books first, is about how to get out of debt. Currently, I plan to make everything available free, online at MoneyAndWealth.org. There is so much more. Visit RichestManInNewBabylon.com for more info. There’s a Noah text version of The Richest Man, results from our first pilot classes, and I am probably going to do an audiobook. It’s a big, time-consuming deal for me.
3. Finny’s Friends
This is a book that I’ve been thinking about for three decades. It’s about one year at the Phillips Exeter Academy—the school year I graduated—1964-65. There is more, though. An epistolary novel. A story on a modern timeline. A story about one day in 2022. I’m spending a lot of time talking to classmates and other people familiar with Exeter back in the mid-1960s. More about this project here.
4. Angertainment: The Profitable Business of Undermining American Democracy
I’ve been exorcising some of my anxieties about the political future of the United States with an overgrown essay on the subject of angertainment.
What is angertainment? I never thought you’d ask.
It’s the “content” presented by people who are pretending to be journalists—Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, One America News, et. al.—with the goal of “angertaining” an loyal audience and making money. It’s a seriously big deal, I think. If it piques your interest, please communicate. I’d love to get some feedback and recommendations from early readers of the draft copy.
5. The Incompleat Dance Caller
I’ve started making some notes and drafting some copy for a book about traditional dance leadership. I’ve been calling dances for 30 years plus, now. I think I have some useful information to share. This will be a companion volume to The Incompleat Sound Operator.
6. Folk and or Woke Dance?
An essay that addresses the current movement to replace words like men/women and ladies/gents with gender-blind terminology such as Larks/Robins.
If I ever complete this and release this into the wild I will never be invited to call dances at any major venue.
Other Stuff
We’re building an addition to our house in West Orange, NJ. The addition is small—the size of a one-car garage. The lower level is, in fact, set up to be a garage, though Jane has her eye on it as a space for fostering cats. The upper level will be a new kitchen and dining nook, plus a small deck. The old kitchen will be reconfigured as a bathroom and a hallway with a little storage.
It’s a huge project for us and there are so many things that are still getting processed. I think there will be some very interesting things to share along the way.
Other stuff. I’m still calling dances—fewer than in the past, but I’m still getting out for that a bit. And I’ve been rehired on the professional sound staff at The Flurry (a big dance/music festival in Saratoga Springs, NY) in February. Saturday morning racquetball is still a big deal for me. I dread the day when I age out of that. I’m still the chief cook (and bottle washer) so that’s on my agenda.
So that’s what I’m doing.
III
I’ve changed my starting word for Wordle, the New York Times word game.
I was an ADIEU user. Forever. I started with ADIEU and then played STORY and did, I thought, very well.
Then I read a number cruncher article in the NYT about Wordle that concluded that SLATE was—based on the data—the best starting word. As an ADIEU user, I was averaging a half a guess more than the average SLATE user, the story said.
The article came out about two weeks ago.
So I gave it a shot. I tried SLATE, and almost immediately, I had a two-guess solve. And then, the next day, another solution in two guesses. And I had a two-guess solution a couple of days ago. And I hit it in two guesses today.
I had played Wordle more than 450 times and gotten a two-guess solve eight times. Now, since switching to SLATE, I have 12 two-guess solves in 476 games played.
I have officially bid adieu to ADIEU and joined the SLATE bandwagon. What can I say? It’s really cool to get it in two.
IV
I’m not sure if I’ve shared this before, but it is worth repeating (and sharing with others)
The proper way to reheat a slice of pizza.
If you want a fresh, tasty, thoroughly delectable slice, stay away from the microwave. Do not waste energy heating your pizza stone in the oven.
Get a large frying pan. (I recommend non-stick or carbon steel).
Place the slice in the frying pan and heat it low and slow. It will take 15 minutes or so. When the slice is hot and glistening on the top, it will be hot and crispy on the bottom.
Delish.
Enjoy.
Anon.
Ridge