perfidy

I have recently been trolling job sites in a desultory fashion just to see if there's that one hott opportunity out there that I cannot afford to pass up. I have a pretty good gig here at the Institute for Advanced Ensmartening, but you never know what might be out there.

Job searching is just about the least fun pastime I can imagine, even now, when for the first time in my life I'm not under the gun to find something before I get evicted for non-payment of rent. To lighten the time with some gallus-pole humor, I like to play a game called "Bid Johno Low" where I try to find the job listing with the most outrageously insulting salary offer based on my education. I got an MA in history for two reasons: I am absolutely apeshit in love with US history; and I thought it might be cool to be a professor. While both conditions still apply, I found out that graduate school life is not for me and washed out with a "terminal MA," which in a history world which values Ph.D's only for prof jobs might as well be "terminal cancer." I've also got an undergraduate degree in music, which qualifies me to play in subway stations around the world, and also to scowl disapprovingly when bar bands play solos in pentatonic minor over songs in major keys. I should get a degree in English Lit just to round things out.

Today I came across a job that seems fairly cool, especially for one such as myself who has an MA in US History, has focussed on the American Revolution and Massachusetts history, and who wishes to work in a teaching or otherwise public role. The job: Historical Interpreter for the USS Constitution Museum. The responsibilities: research aspects of the Constitution's history and place the stories in a context both entertaining and enlightening for the edification of the museum's patrons. Full time including one weekend day. The pay: $8 an hour.

The last time I checked, I could make almost that much slinging coffee at a Starbucks. Again. I shoulda gone to business school.