is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Hire Me.
Sometimes, even in a job interview, you just have to be yourself, for better or worse. Backstory: I agree with sduckie (yesterday's comments section) that it just seems strange when someone declares a hatred for a cute animal. It's like that episode of Friends (oh. my. god. Am I about to tell an anecdote about the situation comedy called "Friends"? I am. Ugh. But it sets the scene for the anecdote about being one's self.) when Ross reveals that he hates puppies. Everyone's all "[???, as communicated by astonished staring]." And then it later comes out that he also hates ice cream. Who hates puppies and ice cream? It's barely conceivable.
So, toward the end of a long long day of job interviewing for my Haverford fellowship (which, you'll remember, I actually got, so apparently my sarcastironic behavior did not work against me), we were at the dinner phase of the day (so, roughly at the 11th hour of my day-long interview process), when a guy showed up whom I hadn't yet met, but who was on the choosing-committee and thus had power over my fate. We hadn't been seated yet, and our heavy coats were still on, etc. The first thing he said to me, before I got any wine or anything, was "So... what was your paper about?" He wanted me to recap the 45-minute presentation of my work I had just performed and then been questioned about for another 45 minutes. It seemed too cruel! So I looked at him and said, "Puppies." He was understandably confused and said, "[confused look, then a pause, then, with adequate incredulity] WHAT?". I answered, "And ice cream." Him: "Wait. WHAT?." I said, "you like puppies and ice cream, right? That's what my paper was about."
Then he smiled. Luckily he was the kind of guy who then decided he loved me. It could really have backfired, my joke. But apparently sometimes I have to be myself even when I shouldn't be. I'd like to believe that I read him well and thus knew it was OK to make that joke. But I can't be sure that's why I said what I said, you know?
He ended up being from the suburban Bay Area, having hated his high school years there as virulently as I did, so we had many stories to tell and much to laugh about during my years at Haverford.
But then there's Vladimir Estragon (also in yesterday's comments section), who used to love penguins but was talked out of it by Morgan Freeman. Morgan Freeman has so much power! I never saw that PenguinMarch movie, but I heard it was less about penguins and more an advertisement for "family values." In which case a) I understand needing it to be over, permanently, but b) I'm not sure it's the penguins' fault for being forced into a narrative structure by human minds making boring normative assumptions. But I'm not going to try to talk anyone into loving penguins or hugging panda bears any time soon, so it's all good.
12:00 p.m. - November 22, 2008
Vladimir Estragon - 2008-11-28 05:49:42
Morgan Freeman does have power. Even Batman listens to him. Wait a minute. Morgan Freeman. Batman. The Penguin. Hmmm...
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