“sensibilized” and “hiddenly” two of many words in student papers I doubted were real. Fortunately, I looked them up and I was wrong. Must remember to not open my mouth too fast, something I am not good at doing. Bluntness has burned more than one bridge. There was that agent in New Orleans I met at SXSW, who at that time represented Lanois and other heavies. I told him I didn’t understand why they paid him so much, he looked at me like I just threw an egg on his new jacket, maybe I did but my intention wasn’t to hurt his feelings. I just didn’t understand what justified the ludicrous fees, I was in my 20’s but even now I think it a fair question. He would get Lanois 65k to produce a record. I look at the sunshine list for all these college professors earning 120k, 140k, 160k and while they sometimes lead conversations about the meaning behind this work, behind the greatness of discussing ideas… I want to say but would you really do this if not for earning more than 10k each month? It happened last year in one of my classes, just four of us and the students were going round the room answering why they were here. For me it’s easy, I’m looking for the salary that comes from a full time position teaching and nobody will hire you without the PhD. My turn never came, the class ended but the first three all had answers avoiding any addressing of moolah. They said only how amazing are the long conversations that come with being a student. I’m so fortunate to be in the company of saintly honest people.