I had a job free-lance copy-editing manuscripts
for CRC Press, in Boca Raton. Styling them for
the typesetter. I got paid by the page. So much for
straight text and so much for a page with a table
or a formula on it. If you got really good at it, the job paid
minimum wage, no benefits. At Christmas, the company
gave us each of us a box of chocolate-covered cherries. I ate mine
at a sitting, in front of the television, like the other depressed
housewives. I wasn't desperate. I was a househusband.
I had two tapes I listened to, The Best of Merle Haggard
and The Best of the Statler Brothers. My favorite songs were
"The Class of '57 Had Its Dreams" and "If We Make It
Through December." I put it off, and put it off, then rushed
the job and made mistakes. They quit giving me manuscripts.
I had been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
It wasn't the last time this would happen. I also listened to
Ornette Coleman and the Master Musicians of Morocco.
Dancing in Your Head. Used on the soundtrack of
Naked Lunch.