Gawker 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 1:45 PM
Mon Nov 16
30 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip Your Editors:
tips@gawker.com
Tipline: 646-214-8138
Editor-in-Chief:
Gabriel Snyder | Email
West Coast Editor:
Richard Rushfield | Email
Contributing Editors:
Valleywag:
Ryan Tate | Email
Media:
Hamilton Nolan | Email
Politics:
Alex Pareene | Email
Investigations:
John Cook | Email
Entertainment:
Brian Moylan | Email
Nights:
Adrian Chen | Email
Azaria Jagger | Email
Ravi Somaiya | Email
Weekends:
Foster Kamer | Email
Video Editor:
Richard Blakeley | Email
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/05/09
11/05/09
I remember roughly 10 years ago I suddenly became unemployed, because I'd stupidly left a very secure print journalism job to go work for a website right before the Internet bubble burst.
As it was, I was still waiting for Gannett to process my check for leaving them (I think I was at the web company for maybe five weeks before I got laid off and one of the reasons I went to the web company job was that Gannett was offering giant checks for people willing to leave) and had already decided to liquidate my 401(k) so I knew that I was going to have about 20k in the bank in a few weeks and move to France. I just needed some cash to live on until that money came through.
If I had known how depressing the filing process is and that New Jersey would make me talk a bureaucrat shrink who would ask me in 400 subtle ways if if I was about to kill myself and then make me take a class in how to use a computer and insist that I sit in round table discussion groups with other newly unemployed people about our feelings, I would have just asked my dad for a loan. #thepoors
11/05/09
Related: To the person who cashed that check--You suck.
11/05/09
Yeah, everyone I know who has dealt with unemployment benefits has had a horrible experience with it.
The worst for me - though not nearly as bad as anyone elses - was during that period my old editor at Gannett had their music writer out sick and asked if I would review an AC/DC show for them on a freelance basis.
The job paid all of $25 - and I honestly went for the free ticket - but I had to go back to the unemployment office and spend three hours waiting in line and filling out forms to document that freelance income so they could adjust my unemployment check. And if I hadn't documented it and they had found out about the extra income I could have gone to jail. #thepoors
11/05/09
Also, I forgot to mention that those Cheerios I lived on? Not brand name, but "No Frills Oatie O's" in the plastic bag! #thepoors
11/05/09
Maybe it's a brand I don't know, or maybe we're entering a world where beans are considered a frill. #thepoors
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
Hmmm, I think this is a garbled reference to a passage in "Life of a Homesteading Woman" (I'm reading it now on my poor-man's kindle -- the iPhone!) wherein some nice ladies made flour bags into chemises and rice bags into panties for a less fortunate young homesteading lady who had no fashion with which to woo men. They also traveled into town (which took a week!) to buy her some sandals and hair ribbons to go with her finery.
Very creative, those homesteaders! #thepoors
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
[www.iupress.indiana.edu]
Well, her husband and my gg-something were best friends. Basically it tells the story of why you shouldn't pump millions of dollars into moving tailors from Kiev onto the prairie without teaching them how to farm, or keep warm without having to sleep with animals. #thepoors
11/05/09
11/05/09
OMG -- coooool!!!! It's on my list now.
Wow, her life sounds incredibly challenging. The chronicle I'm currently reading takes place in the west, and in many ways, I think California is just an easier state to thrive in for a variety of reasons.
I can't wait to check this out, thanks!
(I'm digging these homesteading stories lately. So weird how much life has changed in the U.S. and so amazing what these people accomplished to the benefit of the rest of us.) #thepoors
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
Seriously Hamilton, that's like sticking it to a dead duck. We get it guys, print is dead. #thepoors
11/05/09
11/05/09
Show some sympathy for an old and punished commenter. #thepoors
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
I lost my star for a while because of chat-room Sheila support last year, so I know how you feel. Sigh. #thepoors
11/05/09
11/06/09
11/06/09
11/06/09
I feel special again! #thepoors
11/06/09
11/07/09
09/17/09
09/17/09
09/17/09
09/17/09
The real person that got damaged by Dan Brown's hesitation is Steve Rubin, the former President and Publisher of Doubleday/Broadway. If The Lost Symbol had been published last year, he'd still have his job.
Steve is a intelligent, perceptive man who worked for the company in various ways for almost 20 years. If you asked him a question, he would give you a clear answer.
So Dan Brown dithers...
Rubin is kicked upstairs to a vague job...
And Sonny glides down the hallway with a smile on his face.
09/17/09
09/29/09
No. He's gone.
09/17/09
09/17/09
09/17/09
But answer me this much: Is it the Templars, the Catholic Church, or the Masons who secretly run everything on this planet? Which one is IT?
Or is your point that they're all one and the same uber-org headquartered 1) in the Louvre 2) under the Pope's robe 3) in a broom closet at the Lincoln Memorial?
09/17/09
For what? To craft his prose? To research facts? I'm having a hard time coming up with a reason here.
09/17/09
09/17/09
Ohhh, it looks like someone likes sour-grape flavor Hater-Ade!
09/17/09
09/17/09
09/17/09
(It already has a book deal, too.)
07/16/09