Started off bagging groceries, thought driving moonshine was more exciting and lucrative. They made me quit when I got old enough to actually go to jail if I got caught. Disk jockey through my last year and a half in high school, then spent a summer a blaster's helper on a big road project. Joined the USAF and got stuck into meteorology — weather observer, rawinsonde and pibal operator, then weather editor. Sang in cabarets in Tokyo during the two years I was in Japan. Worked for a while as the weekend news department for KTOK radio in Oklahoma City.

When I got out I worked for a couple of months as a slave trader. It was euphoneously called an employment counselor, but it was just slave trading. Great money, couldn't stand it. Also worked as a general flunky/bartender at a ski lodge for a winter. During university I sold wine and played whatever gigs I could get in/around Cleveland, Ohio.

In grad school I taught international relations and political philosophy to underclassmen and sang whatever gigs I could get in/around Hamilton and Toronto.

After I quit the PhD program I did supply teaching in the Hamilton schools and helped organize a bluegrass festival — did most of the publicity and organized the crafts area.

Went to work in newspapers — reporter for 10 years, then copy editor and copy desk chief for the last 16 years. They eliminated the CDC job and I'm a copy editor again, but they still pay me as a CDC. Now I work at being inconspicuous at work and playing blues whenever possible.

david