I have always been fortunate, but jobs are not always that easy to get.
I don't know where you were in the early '70's, but I was in
Huntsville. Boeing had something like 5000 people employed in
Huntsville at one time. When I got there they were down to 3500. When
I was laid off from Boeing, they were down to 350. When I left
Huntsville, Boeing only had 18 employees in Huntsville.

As I said I was always fortunate, Boeing offered me a job in Seattle
that I could have taken before I was laid off. I knew an even dozen
engineers that transferred to Seattle, and eleven of them were laid off
in Seattle. That was during the time that the bill board appeared in
Seattle that said " The last one to leave Seattle, turn off the lights
."

As you might suspect, I and a lot of other people I knew were reading
the help wanted section of the newspaper, and I applied to all of the
jobs that sounded as if I was qualified for them. Did not get any job
from the help wanted section of the newspaper. At this time the
public library had a help wanted publication that had jobs listed from
all over the country.

A few years later I posted an add for a part time employee while I was
in Huntsville. We got seventy something replies and a hell of a
qualified employee for near minimum wage.

It isn't always easy to get even a lousy job with or without the help
wanted section of the newspaper.

If I recall correctly Ed, you have an engineering degree. How come you
haven't been doing engineering?


Dan

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have always been fortunate, but jobs are not always that easy to get.
I don't know where you were in the early '70's, but I was in
Huntsville. Boeing had something like 5000 people employed in
Huntsville at one time. When I got there they were down to 3500. When
I was laid off from Boeing, they were down to 350. When I left
Huntsville, Boeing only had 18 employees in Huntsville.

As I said I was always fortunate, Boeing offered me a job in Seattle
that I could have taken before I was laid off. I knew an even dozen
engineers that transferred to Seattle, and eleven of them were laid off
in Seattle. That was during the time that the bill board appeared in
Seattle that said " The last one to leave Seattle, turn off the lights
."

As you might suspect, I and a lot of other people I knew were reading
the help wanted section of the newspaper, and I applied to all of the
jobs that sounded as if I was qualified for them. Did not get any job
from the help wanted section of the newspaper. At this time the
public library had a help wanted publication that had jobs listed from
all over the country.

A few years later I posted an add for a part time employee while I was
in Huntsville. We got seventy something replies and a hell of a
qualified employee for near minimum wage.

It isn't always easy to get even a lousy job with or without the help
wanted section of the newspaper.

If I recall correctly Ed, you have an engineering degree. How come you
haven't been doing engineering?

No, Dan. Telecommunications: broadcasting, in other words. I also have all
required credits for a degree in political science, but I never took the
degree because MSU wouldn't count some courses toward both degrees, even
though they'd suffice if I took only *one* degree.

Let's see...lining them all up is pretty hard, but I drove spikes on a
crossing crew for Penn Central Railroad; taught swimming; trimmed Christmas
trees; guest-lectured at a university; cleaned pools; pumped gas; delivered
pizzas; managed a phone bank; sanded and painted boat hulls; sold security
systems; hmm, it's one wacky resume, eh? g

But most of my life I've been a writer and editor. When I couldn't, I've
never seen a help-wanted section that didn't have a job in it. Some of them
are ALWAYS there for long periods of time, because they're beneath some
people. I haven't seen an honest job that I'd consider beneath me.

BTW, the last two editorial jobs I've applied for each have had over 200
applicants. The trade magazine business really sucks these days. However,
there's always work somewhere.

--
Ed Huntress

Before you shoot cats....
 

On 4/19/2005 12:33 AM, Ed Huntress wrote:
"Don Bruder" wrote in message
...

Forget it, Gunner... Mr. Ed (or perhaps I should say "The south end of a
north-facing Mr. Ed") has conclusively demonstrated that he has no
concept of "waste not, want not", has never actually been more hungry
than "Gee, I wish I had a bagel right about now", and has no conception
of what the real world is like outside his sheltered little corner of
it.

"The real world"? Your world is a dumpster, and your idea of "real world"
living is eating other peoples' garbage?

That must be one pathetic part of the world you live in, Don.


Sure must be nice to go through life without ever experiencing anything
like a hardship. Wish I could be so lucky.

Nobody who owns a computer, who can type and who is articulate -- and who is
able enough to dive into dumpsters and get out again -- has any excuse for
eating out of one, unless he's one seriously screwed up s.o.b.

You eat garbage because you've decided you like the idea, Don, not because
you have to.

I can see someone being temporarily screwed up enough that eating out of
dumpsters might seem like the only option. Anyone who does it
repeatedly has a serious mental defect.

Before you shoot cats....
 

On 4/19/2005 1:18 AM, Gunner wrote:
On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 03:40:44 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 18 Apr 2005 23:00:12 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


It greatly depends on when, and where you are. And how hungry you
are.

Mostly it depends on how much self-respect you have, if you're a
sentient,
physically able adult in North America.

--
Ed Huntress


Read the first sentence again. Shrug.

You sound like a liberal making excuses that he can't get a job and stand on
his own feet, Gunner.

shrug..and you once again, sound like the arrogant, elitist and
terribly naive Easterner we have come to love.

I bet there aren't 100,000 people in the entire country who have ever
eaten out of dumpsters...including you. I don't believe your goofy
yarn. I don't know why you told it, but it's bull****.

Before you shoot cats....
 

On 4/19/2005 1:20 AM, Gunner wrote:
On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 03:33:25 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"Don Bruder" wrote in message
...

Forget it, Gunner... Mr. Ed (or perhaps I should say "The south end of a
north-facing Mr. Ed") has conclusively demonstrated that he has no
concept of "waste not, want not", has never actually been more hungry
than "Gee, I wish I had a bagel right about now", and has no conception
of what the real world is like outside his sheltered little corner of
it.

"The real world"? Your world is a dumpster, and your idea of "real world"
living is eating other peoples' garbage?

That must be one pathetic part of the world you live in, Don.


Sure must be nice to go through life without ever experiencing anything
like a hardship. Wish I could be so lucky.

Nobody who owns a computer, who can type and who is articulate -- and who is
able enough to dive into dumpsters and get out again -- has any excuse for
eating out of one, unless he's one seriously screwed up s.o.b.

You eat garbage because you've decided you like the idea, Don, not because
you have to.

Who owned a computer in the 70s?

No one said anything about the "70s", gummer.

Before you shoot cats....
 

On 4/19/2005 7:13 PM, Gunner wrote:
On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 16:31:23 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


Food banks don't accept garbage. If the difference isn't clear, the swill
Gunner is talking about is what most people call garbage: a mixture of
discarded food, rotted food, pet feces, old papers, vacuum-cleaner bags, the
contents of trash cans, and so on. It's usually layered in there until the
dumpster is full. Maybe it takes a week to fill one up.

Gunner's job is to separate the layers and minimize exposure of the stuff
he's preparing to eat to the pet feces, etc., while using all of his senses
to determine if the wretched stink is coming from the stuff he's collecting
to eat, or if the stink is safely down several layers lower in the sediment.

New Jersey restaurants must be interesting, if they toss out dog and
cat **** with the scraps.

Other people throw **** into the dumpster, gummer.

Before you shoot cats....
 

On 4/20/2005 2:06 AM, Gunner wrote:
On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 23:30:56 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 16:31:23 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


Food banks don't accept garbage. If the difference isn't clear, the swill
Gunner is talking about is what most people call garbage: a mixture of
discarded food, rotted food, pet feces, old papers, vacuum-cleaner bags,
the
contents of trash cans, and so on. It's usually layered in there until
the
dumpster is full. Maybe it takes a week to fill one up.

Gunner's job is to separate the layers and minimize exposure of the stuff
he's preparing to eat to the pet feces, etc., while using all of his
senses
to determine if the wretched stink is coming from the stuff he's
collecting
to eat, or if the stink is safely down several layers lower in the
sediment.

New Jersey restaurants must be interesting, if they toss out dog and
cat **** with the scraps.

Have you ever worked in a restaurant?

Actually, yes. I was head cook in one for a year, during my youth.

chortle head cook, crack drilling rig operator/repairman, deputy
sheriff, ex 75th Ranger, western mercenary in Rhodesia...I haven't seen
space shuttle commander on the list yet.

Before you shoot cats....
 

On 4/23/2005 4:08 AM, Gunner wrote:
On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 01:36:07 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"wmbjk" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 16:31:23 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


Food banks don't accept garbage. If the difference isn't clear, the swill
Gunner is talking about is what most people call garbage: a mixture of
discarded food, rotted food, pet feces, old papers, vacuum-cleaner bags,
the
contents of trash cans, and so on.

No Harbor Freight catalogs? Must be "elitist" trash. ;-)

Absolutely. As Gunner says, I'm only familiar with elitist Dumpsters. The
ones he shops in for dinner must be a lot worse.


Goodbye Ed.

plink No time limit. Global. Permanent

chortle Now that's funny.

Before you shoot cats....
 

On 4/23/2005 9:02 AM, jim rozen wrote:
In article , Ed Huntress says...

I'm really straining here, trying to imagine what kind of perspective one
gets from the bottom of a dumpster.

There's a saying, sometimes you have to hit bottom before you can
start to come up. It may be that, for whatever fortunate reasons,
you never got down to that bottom.

The saying is not applicable to most people. The people for whom it's
true nearly always exhibit some form of mental instability.


There's been a steady erosion of the 'safety net' at the bottom.
Ironically it's been mostly the politicians on the right that want
to strip that stuff away because it represents income redistribution
from folks with money, to folks without. That's the kind they
really hate. (they don't mind the other kind of course)

There hasn't been an erosion of any safety net. What happened was the
safety net was transmogrified into a goosedown-stuffed mattress with a
fully stocked Sub-Zero refrigerator beside it, all paid for of course by
the taxpayer. Quite reasonably, that was trimmed back.



Around here there are regular appeals from soup kitchens, especially
in the wintertime. For food. When you hear those, you think that
yes, there will be more folks scavenging like that. Is it good? No.
Does it happen? Yes.

I've never been poor, I've never had to do that - so I can't say
for sure what the perspective is. But I bet there's bunch more
folks (myself included for all I know) who are *saying* that, who
are in for a suprise in the future. Given the recent changes
in the bankrupcy laws, and given the present unsettled economic
climate[1], GWB may well go down in history not as 'they guy who started
the war with Iraq' but rather "The next Herbert Hoover."

I bet *plenty* of folks ate out of trash cans during the depression.

Jim

[1] I mean, hell, me and my buddies take *one* extra long coffee
break last week, and just LOOK what happened to the Dow Jones. And
they say it was all our fault!

Before you shoot cats....
 

On Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:21:01 -0700, George Plimpton
wrote:

On 4/20/2005 2:06 AM, Gunner wrote:
On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 23:30:56 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 16:31:23 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


Food banks don't accept garbage. If the difference isn't clear, the swill
Gunner is talking about is what most people call garbage: a mixture of
discarded food, rotted food, pet feces, old papers, vacuum-cleaner bags,
the
contents of trash cans, and so on. It's usually layered in there until
the
dumpster is full. Maybe it takes a week to fill one up.

Gunner's job is to separate the layers and minimize exposure of the stuff
he's preparing to eat to the pet feces, etc., while using all of his
senses
to determine if the wretched stink is coming from the stuff he's
collecting
to eat, or if the stink is safely down several layers lower in the
sediment.

New Jersey restaurants must be interesting, if they toss out dog and
cat **** with the scraps.

Have you ever worked in a restaurant?

Actually, yes. I was head cook in one for a year, during my youth.

chortle head cook, crack drilling rig operator/repairman, deputy
sheriff, ex 75th Ranger, western mercenary in Rhodesia...I haven't seen
space shuttle commander on the list yet.

You misinterpreted. He was in charge of cooking heads -- fish heads,
sheep heads, etc.

It's something like "pastry chef," only with tongues and eyeballs.

--
Ed Huntress