Callow Youths Hold Unemployment Olympics
Some folks are holding an "Unemployment Olympics" in Tompkins Square Park today at 1:30 p.m. The event, which includes a Fax Machine Toss and Pin the Blame on the Bosses, requires its competitors to show proof of unemployment and is sponsored by several local businesses. It has drawn much coverage, including that of the Daily News, which quotes laid-off founder Nick Goddard ("Maybe it will lift everyone's spirits a little"), and Newsday, which sourly notes that the event's locale is "a gentrified neighborhood" which "has largely shed its edgy past."
EV Grieve has his own problems with it. "The Olympics seem a little -- this will get me in trouble with the EV Grieve HR Department -- youthful. And collegiate. And! It seems to weigh heavily toward the white collar, 9-to-5 crowd. I know too many people -- particularly in the food-service industry and construction (the off-the-books types) -- who are reeling from the economy. I don't think they'll be in the mood to throw a fax machine."
Yeah, but they don't office-surf for stuff like this at temp jobs, right? We won't tell them if you don't. And this time next year, EV and we will probably have no way of finding out about the 2nd UE Olympiad, either, unless we happen to read about it on our blankets.
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