Over the weekend Gawker drew attention to this Craigslist posting:
I’m working on a memoir, set in 1983, when I lived with Obama for a year.
The memoir is about my life and about what New York was like in 1983, and how we lived then, but Barack is obviously a player in the story. This is not a tell-all, it’s a friendly, gentle and literate book.
I work full time in a highly visible career and would like to work with a research assistant to help me stay focused.
This is you:
You live in Manhattan and can visit the Village frequently.
Your living situation is stable, as is your personal life.
Your income is stable.
You can work with a six month window. (ok, maybe a year. it depends.)
You are a fantastic and empathetic listener.
You’re creative and imaginative and a fine writer. You can shape material.
You don’t drink or use drugs. No psychological disorders I have to deal with.
You are in a graduate writing program at NYU or Columbia.
You want an opportunity to work on a visible book.
You are dependable, timely, punctual and highly motivated to succeed.
This is an internship, not a paid position.
I have already begun, finally, this week, after thinking about it for a the last year. Now is the time. My agent is waiting on the first 100 pages. Let’s go. [Link]
When I saw this post my first thought was, “is it Sohale Siddiqi?” How interesting would that book be? More importantly, would it be a better seller than “Going Rogue?” Anyone else have any guesses based on the time-frame in the ad and what you’ve read in Obama’s autobiographies? Even if this turns out not to be Siddiqi, I think at least one of his former desi roommates should write a book!
How about you Abhi? How about you write about him? You sound like you have a tingle run up your leg every time you think about Obama, you might as well have been in bed with him.
Jealous Khandri? Glenn Beck not giving you any love?
Awwww, speaking of bed, did someone wake up on the wrong side of one this morning? Need a hug?
Something is wrong with the timeline. Wasn’t Obama in 7th grade in Hawaii in 1983?
Or maybe I just read too quickly. Oops. Yeah, he graduated from Columbia in 1983.
yeah, definitely one of his desi roomies
…but not punjabi
funny! this guy needs a ghostwriter
no drink, no pay…i haven’t seen an internship this humiliating since the ’90s.
What a cheap bastard. He wants someone getting an MFA or in J-school (Columbia or NYU only, none of you lesser colleges, thanks!), with development editing skills (“you can shape material”), to give him 6 months of his/her life (he can’t even say that straight-faced — “ok, maybe a year. it depends” — so we’re looking at 18 months)…FOR FREE?
He’s got some imagination if he thinks this is an internship. This isn’t even research assistant. Reading between the lines (i.e., his ridiculous list of requirements) it sounds like the work is equal to the higher end of ghostwriting work and deserves a flat fee or a portion of the advance or some combination thereof.
Someone should go apply for it and write back!! Come on mutineers — wanna to be our mole? 🙂
In the real world anyone asking for employees with a “stable personal life” and “no psychological disorders I have to deal with” would get the Labor Dept. crawling up his a$% with a microscope. He’s not just a cheapskate; he’s a control freak.
Exactly what I was thinking. “You do all the work, I get all the glory.”