Down To The Wire

Slate interview with David Simon, co-creator and writer of The Wire, the best show on TV, maybe ever, or as Eliabeth Merrick over at Bookslut puts it, the best novel of the year. The Wire certainly fits that bill, a notion reinforced by Simon himself.

The cold here is violent. Pigeons seem to inhabit Chicago more so than people and downtown at the Daley Center, there's a small flame burning in the plaza near the big Christmas tree. The pigeons hover around it, some within the flame itself, oblivious. It's even worse for the many homeless, who I've seen sleeping between garbage cans in alleys at the same time I'm thinking about that man in Oregon who died, looking for help for his family after they got stranded in the woods. You always get hit up for change - it's a given - and I have none. I am literally as poor as these people. They ask me for change for the bus, well, I'm walking like you because I don't have any change for the bus. I go to gallery shows and readings as much for the free food and wine as the culture. I have spent nearly a month searching for a job, and I seem to have come at a time when hiring is down across the board, or the jobs I am getting interviewed for have enormous competition. It might take weeks to hear back from them, and while I'm out actively searching for jobs, I don't have weeks. I count days in dollars.

Also counting down: The space shuttle.

UPDATE:



Without a hitch.

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