This is only linked by the ostensibility of a magic conceptual rainbow to the sort of stories Consumerist usually posts about, but it is interesting enough that we’re going to post it anyway. City Pages has a fascinating Q&A with freeway exit ramp beggars, asking them the following questions: What’s the best job you ever had? What’s the worst job you ever had? What’s the last job you had? What’s your dream job?
The answers alternate between the poignant and the flippant, the profound and the booze-laced belch. The thing that really stands out is the fact that most of these beggars’ dream jobs are simply to work, period. No “playboy billionaire astronaut cowboy on the moon!” answers here – they are dreams as attainable to us as they are out-of-reach to the homeless interviewed.
We are perplexed, however, by this response from Alex Rasmussen:
Best job: “Bartender, Timberlodge Steak House in West St. Paul. And I was a gardener for Phillips Garden for six years. I’ve worked at the Red Sea, and Grandma’s Saloon. That smoking ban has made getting a bartender job impossible.”
Huh?







Smoking ban in bars => non-smokers more likely to seek bartending jobs => less available bartending jobs.
I think that he’s saying that smokers have a hard time tending bar because you can’t have a smoke break (leaving the bar unattended). Perhaps?
I’ve also heard that some bars and restaurants aren’t doing as well under a smoking ban. Might mean fewer bartending jobs available?
But he didn’t say why he couldn’t go back to gardening.
What’s sad about this, is that my dream job is becoming a highway beggar.