ON THE BREADLINE: KATHY Y. WILSON

Wilson was a senior editor at Cincinnati magazine until she got the ax on March 6.

How do you cope with getting up every morning? What motivates you?

I don’t cope with getting up every morning, which is why I sleep ’til the bitches at The View have gone off the air—usually around 11 a.m. Though, lately, I’ve had plenteous freelance work from the magazine that laid me off, so I’ve been better at meeting deadlines than I was when I “worked” there. The thought of all my nice shit on the curb motivates me.

Likewise, how do you cope with getting to sleep at night, or getting any sleep, period?

I cope with getting to sleep by staring at the six months’ budget scrawled on the chalkboard on the wall just across from my bed; somehow, the thought of knowing where every single penny is and is not coming from is comforting.

Give an example of the sort of changes or cutbacks you’ve had to make in the way you live your life.

No more late-night impulse online high-end sneaker and Lacoste purchases.

Share with us some of your recession gallows humor.

Ain’t shit funny, really.

What, if anything, gives you hope that the future holds better things?

The ability and gift to write from anywhere about anything. And that location and clips do not a writer make.

FREEFALLIN’

Illustration by Barry Blitt © 2009

ON THE BREADLINE: TONY SABERTON

Saberton, of Louisville, Kentucky, was a corporate auditor for major cell-phone retailer. He was laid off on February 1st of this year and currently writes a blog, Homeless But Happy, that is by turns engaging, funny, and heatbreaking.

How do you cope with getting up every morning? What motivates you?

I get up around noon… You could say I miss the mornings. I stay up late and sleep all day most of the time. I guess it goes in streaks. This week I am making myself get up every morning and being productive. Sometimes I’m depressed, sad, angry… It’s different every day.

Likewise, how do you cope with getting to sleep at night, or getting any sleep, period?

I tend to drink a lot of vodka to get my daily recommended carbs and sleep hours. Alcohol is the only thing that gets me to sleep at night. I have drunk more in the last two months than I have in the last year. Depression can sometimes do that to you, so I just need to be careful and make sure I don’t become a victim of that disease.

Give an example of the sort of changes or cutbacks you’ve had to make in the way you live your life.

I sleep on a blow-up bed in my apartment or the back seat of my car when I’m traveling. I do not have a TV or cable; however, I do have a laptop where I “borrow” an internet signal from my neighbors. I have discovered bootleg movie sites which save me money from going to the movies. I also watch Hulu.com: my saving grace for keeping up with my favorite TV shows!

I stacked my fridge with bags of frozen veggies and chicken. I don’t drink Starbucks anymore because now I drink Tasters Choice. They have to-go boxes now with seven tubes of coffee inside for a dollar. (Just add water.) Great deal!

I do have a gym membership. Just in case I become homeless, I can stay in shape, shower, crap, stay warm or cool off in the summer.

Share with us some of your recession gallows humor.

My favorite line is, “I never thought I would own my home in this lifetime, but it looks as if I will. My 2002 Toyota Camry Ranch Cape Cod with central air will be mine in just a few more payments!” They all get a kick out of that.

What, if anything, gives you hope that the future holds better things?

Well, you just have to think positive and try to enjoy the time off without going nuts! It’s bound to turn around some time, and I have a lot of experience, so I think I will be okay soon!

BEATABLE

Photo by David Lawrence © 2009

ON THE BREADLINE: ANGELA KAO

Kao, of Brooklyn, worked as an editor for an independent press, specializing in academic history books. She was laid off at the beginning of April.

How do you cope with getting up every morning? What motivates you?

During the first week, I was full of vim and vigor. I had great plans for my “time off.” I was going to explore new interests and change careers and become the person I always wanted to be! But that in itself has warped into a different kind of stress. So now, in my third week of unemployment, I guess my best answer to this question would be the great, fat Theodore Roethke poem that starts “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.”

Likewise, how do you cope with getting to sleep at night, or getting any sleep, period?

Medication. Love it!

Give an example of the sort of changes or cutbacks you’ve had to make in the way you live your life.

I put the kibosh on new clothes (so sad!). NO new books because we’ve got plenty of them at home (apologies to my friends still toiling away in the industry). Not as much new music. Alcohol is one thing I refuse to give up; instead of buying a bottle at a time, we now buy cases to get the fifteen-percent discount at our local wine shop.

Share with us some of your recession gallows humor.

I’ve been itching for unemployment for quite some time now. I loved my last job but was tiring of the publishing industry in general. I’ve never been happier!

What, if anything, gives you hope that the future holds better things?

Sweet baby Jesus, I haven’t the faintest clue. I used to think about the future all the time. These days, I try not to dwell on it.

“NOOO, TIM, NOT THE TARP!”

“Folks, it’s become a scarlet letter.”

—Jamie Dimon, chief of JPMorgan Chase, on government funding for banks. Illustration courtesy of Mark Alan Stamaty.

Illustration by Mark Alan Stamaty © 2009

BUY STOCK IN CHEAP SEATS

A temperate day, the first-ever regular-season Sunday game at the new Yankee Stadium, excitement high. But to look at the premium seats behind home plate (below left, with Derek Jeter at bat), conspicuous in their sparsity of occupants, you’d think you were catching a glimpse a late-September stinker by a team thirty games out of first. Shift your view to the bleachers and the upper tiers above left field, though (below right), and the mood is happily raucous, the attendance count aptly high.

Those sections behind home plate ought to be filled, need to be filled—for the players’ sake as much as the fans’. (How strange it must be to take one’s on-deck swings in a pocket of humdrum quiet.) But the seats there are priced for a clientele that no longer exists, running from the mid-hundreds up to $2,625 a head. The merriment in the bleachers (from where these photos were taken; tickets are $14 apiece) and the upper grandstand (tickets $23-$30) is testament to the fact that people still want to go to a ballgame. No one should harbor any illusion that the seats behind home plate shouldn’t cost substantially more—but when they’re priced to the point of creating a peculiar in-game ghost town, where only imaginary circa-2007 partners from Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers are enjoying the close-up view, it’s time to recalibrate the pricing plan.

—David Kamp

UPDATE: Some progress on the pricing front.

EKING IT OUT

Before getting laid off in February, I’d held full-time office jobs since 2000, and I’d gotten accustomed to the rhythm of the workaday life—lulled by it, I realize in retrospect. But now, eking out a living is a patchwork affair. You get your mitts on an assignment and cherish it for all it’s worth, because as soon as it’s complete, you’re unemployed again. These days I’m taking everything I can get.

There’s freelance writing. In these six weeks I’ve written a book review, a guide to an actor’s DVD catalog, a jokey charticle, and a press release. (I’ve learned that it’s easier to write a book review than a press release.) I’m also reading entries in a screenplay competition, about one script a day. (I’ve learned that amateur screenwriters are not the best spellers.) And to promote a friend’s documentary I’m helping to run something called the Most Glamorous Pug contest. So far we’ve received more than 400 photos of pugs lovingly adorned by their owners. (I’ve learned that dog people are more fanatical than I ever imagined.)

I have three days a week in which to work, because I’m also looking after my son two days a week while my wife, who remains employed, earns the family salary. On a Tuesday morning we went to hear a singer named Lloyd Miller perform in a packed room of bubbly kids, moms, nannies, and the requisite two other dads. Miller did an awesome rockabilly version of “The Wheels on the Bus.” Today, walking my son to his first dentist appointment, the magnolias were in full bloom and I allowed myself to think, This sure beats working.

Still: If my wife loses her job, we’re screwed.

—Lawrence Levi

ON THE BREADLINE: STEPHANIE SENERCHIA

Senerchia, of Providence, Rhode Island, worked for nearly a decade in health-care administration and management before taking the reins of a “medi-spa” that closed two years ago. She has not since found a new job. “I never thought it would be so hard to find something else, but Rhode Island truly lives up to all the rumors of corruption and nepotism,” she says. “It is not a meritocracy here, and if you don’t have connections, a sought-after and specific skill set, or friends in high places, you’re more or less screwed, especially in the current economy.”

How do you cope with getting up every morning? What motivates you?

Not much! Coffee? Laundry? The need to pee?

Likewise, how do you cope with getting to sleep at night, or getting any sleep, period?

I try to get enough exercise, which usually does the trick. If that’s not enough, there is always bourbon and prescription medication.

Give an example of the sort of changes or cutbacks you’ve had to make in the way you live your life.

We eat more meals at home and buy more economical booze. I scrutinize the prices of things I never used to consider. I rarely buy clothes, which isn’t such a problem as I don’t exactly have to look presentable in an office every day. I do not have health insurance. We only have one car. We are likely not going to Europe or Cleveland this year.

Share with us some of your recession gallows humor.

If I say I’m tired at the end of the day, I feel sort of foolish and hear a lot of (mostly light-hearted) flak. Tired from what? But there is a mental drain that goes along with not having a purpose. It’s made me rethink the meaning of life. Having no purpose is soul-sucking if you allow it to be.

What, if anything, gives you hope that the future holds better things?

The pendulum always swings one way, then swings back. This may be the first time an economic recession/depression has affected me so directly in my 36 years, but I have learned that it’s not the first time in history it’s happened, and that gives me hope. Life has its ups and downs. It’s the little things that matter. Will I regret not having had a closet full of designer clothes as I take my dying breath? I doubt it.

IS THIS DRAWING STILL RELEVANT NOW THAT THE DOW IS OVER 8,000?

Of course it is. This time a year ago, the Dow was well above 12,000. Cartoon, entitled “Bull Begets Bear,” courtesy of Breadline pal and occasional inflammateur Barry Blitt.

Illustration by Barry Blitt © 2009