My wife got a letter from someone inviting us to be on some show about wife swapping. They’re interested in families that are suffering due to the recession.

Apparently, she’s not the only one who received the invitation, as this post on Recessionwire makes clear.

She asked me if I wanted to do it, but I didn’t think it was such a good idea. It’s bad enough being unemployed without the whole world watching you cope with unemployment and a new wife at the same time.

Not to mention that it sounds like a really dumb show.

Maybe. Put your face on a billboard

But what if it really catches on? Imagine going North on 95 through Philly and instead of countless billboards for “Gentleman’s” Clubs, the Flyers, the Wildwoods, terrible DJs on terrible radio stations and cows trying to persuade you to eat chikin, it’s nothing but the faces of the unemployed? One sad billboard after another.

Results-Driven Plumber, Customer-Focused Checkout Clerk, Recently Unleveraged Marketing Manager, Forward-Thinking former Marine.

Sad, man.

That’s how I’d put it.

Okay, I’m editing this post because I referred to the writer as a she and he didn’t like it. Also, I included something in here about dentists, but I’m giving that a post of its own.

Michigan has a program to retrain workers. Oh yeah, and women are turning to stripping for big bucks.

If you don’t know what Twitter is that might be a good thing. It can become an obsessive time-waster. On the other hand, maybe it can help you find a job. This is a nice article on how you can use Twitter to find a job.

Go to Laid off at 50 right away.

Much as I had hoped to make this blog great, I’ve had to give up on it. I have a job and I’m too busy to maintain two blogs, so for now, all the blogging takes place at Laid Off at 50. So hurry over for a taste of righteous indignation.

Well, look what Michael Spafferty has done with his. It’s professional, informative, and inspiring. I’m certain it will land him many 6-figure job offers, and I’m thinking of hiring him to do my own video resume.

Michael Spafferty’s Video Resume from Unemploymentality on Vimeo.

I have a job interview next week so I’ve been practicing by studying this excellent video on successful interview techniques.

The party’s over for everyone. Visit this cool website. The artists are suffering, but not psychologically. Economically. Somewhere in there I read about a guy who had himself shot during the Vietnam war as art. Or something like that. I remember the monks lighting themselves on fire to protest. Now that was cool, but having yourself shot NOT to death strikes me as very self-indulgent. Great career move, seems heroic, but come on, man, anybody can do that. How’s it art?

Okay, I’m being stupid. I don’t know the full story.

But check out this monk. This is not the act of a self-indulgent artist. This is pure insane courage. He goes into the lotus position, a couple other monks douse him with gasoline, and light him up. He burns to death in the streets of Saigon. I quote David Halberstam:

As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.

Can you imagine? I spontaneously burst into flames when the Phillies won the World Series, but I didn’t just sit there burning. I ran out and jumped into our swimming pool, like really fast.

And it was damn cold.

But here’s where you can start to find out. It’s a new video series about the Great Depression launching at the New York Times.

It’s amazing what people lived through in the first half of the twentieth century. Not that the 19th century or any other period in human history was anything but dark, germy, cold, and hard. Fact is, those of us born in the fifties and thereafter, at least in the Western world, have lived through the glory days of humanity. We’re almost a different race from those who came before us. And we’re lucky.

But, man, during the first Depression, the real and Great Depression, people actually scrounged for food. People actually stood in long lines for food. People actually starved.

This guy here is so hungry, he’s trying to eat a woman’s full-course hat.