Sprained my wrist doing the safety dance

I have been, at several points in my life, a two-job lady, working a full time and a part time job. I usually only lasted about six months before it completely wore me down. In addition to needing the money, I usually tried to work for a friend, or somewhere I had worked before. I also preferred to work alone, like a hitman. One of my jobs was at a hotel gift shop. I worked nights, selling $9 toothbrushes to harried business travelers. Mostly, I listened to Prince on the jambox and restocked candy. One of my other tasks was handling the books. Since this gift shop was an extension of a European bookseller, namely W.H. Smith, we had a sizable collection of books. It was here that I learned the difference between trade and mass-market paperbacks and other things. I also learned about the worst practice in the whole publishing world. For mass-market paperbacks, booksellers don’t return them to the vendor. It isn’t cost-effective. Instead, the sellers tear the covers off the books to return to the vendor and then throw the books away. GASP! How horrible. They can’t be donated or given away or used to start a book swap at a retirement community. They are simple pitched in a dumpster and, in my store’s case, compacted with the nightly trash. It was devastating.

My boss at the time found the practice barbaric and turned a blind eye to the bag of coverless books we kept on Wednesdays and Thursdays after I weeded the books. What this meant is that I took home sacks of paperback books. I couldn’t stand to throw them away and would often take books I had no intention of reading: lots of Mary Higgins Clark and Danielle Steel and John Grisham. I also found a few good books. This was how I discovered Dennis Lehane (pre-Mystic River). I also grabbed a book called Dreamland by Kevin Baker; it is one of the best pieces of historical fiction ever. It is set in turn-of-the-century New York (Coney Island mostly) and is centered around the mob, Tammany Hall and the Triangle Shirtwaist fire (which also inspired one of my favorite Rasputina songs, appropriately named My Little Shirtwaist Fire). I loved this book and ended up buying all of Kevin Baker’s other books (even replacing my coverless copy of Dreamland). The second book I read was Strivers’ Row. This book is centered around the early life of Malcolm X in Harlem. It wasn’t as interesting to me as Dreamland, but it introduced me to the Collyer brothers, Homer and Langley. They were New York’s most famous packrats and are the namesake of the disorder for hoarding. Langley was caught by one of the booby traps in his house and buried under one ton of newspaper. Homer, his blind brother, starved to death waiting for Langley to return. I am completely fascinated by the Collyer brothers. I just got a book about them from the library. I hope to read it this weekend. I’m sad that the book doesn’t have any pictures. Anytime you haul 14 pianos out of a house, the pictures are probably pretty awesome. I also feel bad for the construction workers who emptied the house since this happened before the advent of roll-dumpsters. Here is a photo of one of the rooms.



In other news, Villi (bass guitar, piano, vocals) and I (guitar, violin, vocals) have started a band. I think the Collyer Brothers would be an interesting name for a band comprised of two sisters?

Dunno. That is all.