Something for those new to list, those just wondering "what's up with this?", or just simply those with some time to kill, I offer a quick Fridge Door primer:

Q) Are the email updates and the webpage the same thing?

A) What you see on this email is NOT everything that's on the Fridge Door itself, but rather is pretty much new stuff friends sent me since the last update. Check the Fridge Door webpage itself for the whole shebang.

Q) When do you send out the updates and how often?

A) The updates are more or less weekly (often on Thursdays), however as I do this for fun, when the weather's too lousy to go outside and run seven miles or so during lunch, or during free time after work, so it's not 100% guaranteed. Also the webpage is updated as stuff comes in, not just around the Thursday-ish timeframe of the email updates so feel free to check the page earlier in the week to make planning easier or after the update to see if any last-minute stuff just got put on the wire.

Q) How do I read the detail stuff at the bottom of the page/ update?

A) The format of each detailed entry in the bottom section is: first the Title, then my comments, then the forwarded item itself, with two tilde's (~~) separating my comments from the forwarded text. Then the line ( _______________________) separates one item from the next.

Q) I receive other emails about Chicago events with lots more stuff on them? Why are there fewer things on the Fridge Door?

A) Unlike those other 10,000-event "what's going on in Chicago" email newsletters, this is mainly for my friends who I hang out with and therefore I'm likely to personally be at at least 70-80% of the events shown here. I presume it's a no-brainer to say you should (as I do) subscribe to these other email lists too to see what else is going on.

Q) Why are recipients "blind copied" on the updates?

A) Two reasons mainly, first to protect the privacy of and minimize the potential for misuse of our distribution list (not that we don't trust our friends, but stuff like this gets forwarded everywhere, which is how we had 327 people show up for the 12 Bars of Christmas!). If you'd like to promote and event or sell a coffee table, just send me an email and I'd be happy to put it on the update and webpage. Second, if you printed out the Fridge Door (which is not exactly concise already) with a fully displayed distribution list, that would kill a lot of trees unnecessarily, which is something I'm just not into (yes, my dad did go to Berkeley).

Q) Doing the updates and webpage obviously takes time, and does not make any money, so why do you do this?

A) For the same reason I throw those 150+ person "Big Backyard" parties in the summer at my place. There's definitely a cost associated with it (food, beer, liquor, time, getting your place trashed, etc.) but there's a lot of good intangible benefits too as I personally enjoy it, my friends have a good time (which they very often return the favor by inviting me to their events), and sometimes I even get to make some new friends. Not to mention this allows me to personally ensure that everyone gets invited to stuff - clique-iness is one of my pet peeves. And heck, who couldn't use a little good Karma?

Q) I understand the internet, with all its rich content as source of the weekly "time kills" but why NPR?

A) Just a personal preference I suppose, plus I consider the content to be both very diverse as well as interesting to those of us who are more inclined towards more intellectual curiosity, but there's something for almost everyone there. A former girlfriend of mine who is a huge NPR fan got me hooked listening to NPR's news programs like Morning Edition and All Things Considered during my long commutes before I bought Party Central North, as well as personal favorites like Car Talk and This American Life. The rest was history...

Q) Where does this stuff come from?

A) This is actually a rhetorical question to setup the following public service announcement - All this stuff below is thanks to folks who forward it along to me, so please keep it coming. Thanks!