The Hidden Fragility of our Electric Grid Let me start this email by expressing my hope that this pandemic resolves quickly and with as few deaths as possible. So far, Vermont has not been heavily affected. However, our children live in New York and New Jersey, areas which are suffering with this disease. With the current dangers to our world and our family, I find it hard to concentrate on my book Shorting the Grid. Nevertheless, a reliable electric grid is essential for anything we do, including fighting a pandemic. When Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal was sick with COVID, she wrote a column that included these words: There are a million warnings out there on a million serious things. We add one: Everything works—and will continue to work—as long as we have electricity. It’s what keeps the lights on, the oxygen flowing, the information going. Everything is the grid, the grid, the grid. Noonan is correct. Even if we fall into a major recession at the end of the COVID pandemic, we will still need a reliable grid. I tell myself that my work on the grid book is worthwhile. I do my best to concentrate.
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Grid Book News My book, Shorting the Grid, is back from 1106 Design. I am looking over the copy edits and adding a few sentences. As usual, it's the little stuff that is so difficult. The subtitle, for example. When I sent it to 1106, I didn't have a subtitle for Shorting the Grid. Actually, I had tons of subtitles. I went through very short subtitles, and one subtitle of truly Victorian length: Shorting the Grid: Insiders, Complex Rules, and the Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid A friend gently told me that "complex" is not a word that entices people to read a book. Right. I should have thought of that! The new title is Shorting the Grid: The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid. I hope it entices people to read the book! Endorsements Some wonderful people have written wonderful endorsements for the book. More about that in another email. For now, just enjoy the draft of the cover art (shown above). To all my readers: Take care. Be well. More later. Meredith Angwin
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