<\/p>\n
I interviewed <\/strong><\/span>for a position on the library board. I knew two people who had been on the board and liked it. I wondered if the board would ask me what books I was reading. In 1967, at a college interview at Johns Hopkins, I talked about my Holocaust reading. That was a big hit. The Holocaust wasn\u2019t even the \u201cHolocaust\u201d\u00a0yet. (I was pre-med but didn\u2019t apply to Hopkins. My parents said. \u201cGo to a state school and get all A’s.\u201d)<\/p>\n I recently read David Byrne\u2019s How Music Works<\/em> and Shit my Dad Says<\/em> by Justin Halpern. I have also read 100 pages in Bernard Malamud\u2019s A New Life<\/em>. I\u2019m thinking, \u201cI\u2019m reading Malamud\u201d might be the ticket for the library-board interview.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n When I interviewed,<\/strong><\/em> the board sat on a dais. I took the \u201cwitness stand\u201d in the center of the room. Only three board members — out of the five — were there. One missing board member was a playwright; the other, a guy from my synagogue. My A-team was not there.<\/p>\n Question 1:<\/strong><\/span> How would you make the library better for students?<\/p>\n A. You mean those brats who play computer games and horse around in the teen room? I\u2019ve never been in that room.<\/em><\/p>\n Question 2. Mr. Stratton, what do you do at the library besides take out books?<\/p>\n Not much!<\/em> I was at the dedication of the Harvey Pekar statue, though.<\/em><\/p>\n Question 3: What would you do to help the library\u2019s finances?<\/p>\n I\u2019d vote for the levies.<\/em><\/p>\n Question 4: Are you willing to commit to a seven-year position?<\/p>\n Yes, but actuarially speaking, who knows.<\/em><\/p>\n Nobody asked the Malamud question. I didn\u2019t get the offer. A black chemist beat me out. Top that. In a follow-up email, the library director thanked me for applying and encouraged me to apply again.<\/p>\n Maybe. But first I have to walk through the teen room and get a feel for young adults\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I interviewed for a position on the library board. I knew two people who had been on the board and liked it. I wondered if the board would ask me what books I was reading. In 1967, at a college interview at Johns Hopkins, I talked about my Holocaust reading. That was a big hit. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29123"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29132,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29123\/revisions\/29132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}