Thanks entirely to you, we’ve now paid off all our start-up costs, redesign costs and retroactive server costs. I’ve even been able to pay two interns (a pittance) to help me keep up with the thousands of emails we get on a weekly basis. Soon now, I may even get a small payment myself – the first actual salary I’ve yet made. We still need your help, though. Server costs are growing with our traffic and we have to pay them each month. It will also make a huge difference to the long-term viability of the site if I can make a small salary for all the work involved – around three or four hours a day right now. The book-club, if it keeps up a decent participation rate, will also make a big difference. So will your contributions, which you can make by clicking on the Tipping Point button on the top left of your screen or here. If you’re a regular reader, please consider a nominal amount. If you’re a devotee please consider more. If you feel like buying something from Amazon or our other affiliates, please add one more click to your efforts and visit them through our site. That way, we get a small commission, and they all add up. As to traffic, we’ve seen no drop off since the peak of the war and are still growing solidly. We’ve had some problems on our stats server so the following numbers are only roughly accurate, but we’re getting around 20,000 unique visitors for a total of around 36,000 unique visits a day. Our monthly visit numbers are around 800,000 and page-views are around 1.2 million. When we make one million visits a month, I’ll take a short break with a large case of Jagermeister.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: On a personal note, I’ve taken a short leave from The New Republic and my free-lance gigs to do something that might seem a little crazy. A while back, I was emailed by a director for the Washington Shakespeare Company, asking if I’d audition for an upcoming play. I used to do a lot of acting in college and grad school, so, after getting over the surprise, I gave it a shot. To my surprise, he cast me. I decided a week or so ago to give it a go, and I’m throwing my routine up in the air for a while to do something completely different. Ever since I turned 30 and thought I’d never turn 40, I’ve taken the view that you should say yes to things. Life’s short. You might as well enjoy it. (Don’t worry. The Dish will keep coming.) The play is Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” and I’m playing Benedick, one of my favorite characters in Shakespeare’s repertoire. The play opens April 23, Shakespeare’s birthday, and runs through May. I’ll post details when the show approaches. So far, I’ve been rehearsing three hours most days and having a blast. My only condition for doing it was not wearing tights. I will, however, have a pair of black leather pants. That should pack them in.
The Dish 