This at once darkest and most festive time of year, too, is a time of connection. And disconnection. A lot of ink has been spilled of late about how to deal with the Woke or MAGA devotee Uncle Benny around the Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday table. Get beyond politics, we are advised. Only connect, we are advised. But how?

The trauma of COVID’s forced isolation not yet behind us, we long for connection. For reasons I can’t explain I tend to avoid the telephone. But at the beginning of the lockdown, I reached out to a friend and had a long, lovely chat. Afterwards, I wisely announced to myself — drumroll — that the remedy for this prolonged isolation would depend on staying in touch with friends. Full of that wisdom, I returned to composing Winging It: Improv’s Power and Peril in the Time of Trump, and the wisdom was all but lost. I hope it was worth it, but who can say? It depends upon my success in connecting to readers.