c  u  r  s  i  v  e  b  u  i  l  d  i  n  g  s

REJECT THE REJECTERS

the doorman at my office building doesn’t do his job very well. i don’t mind at all. he’s the busiest old man i’ve ever known… he sits there typing up manifesto-length columns from scraps of blue paper, which he fills w/scribble while drinking irish coffees in all the dingy bars at night. he mails these to places like the new york times & the s.francisco chronicle. he does not include a SASE because he doesn’t care about publication. he writes because it’s a habit he cannot break, would not dare to break. it keeps his head from the depths of a deep depression, he says.

yesterday the new york times sent him a rejection slip anyway. i was standing by his desk when he read it. i was trying to convince the old man to write a column for my magazine (much too busy, he says). after considering the mail a moment, he got right back to work… writing a rejection to the rejection slip:

NEW YORK TIMES

thank you for the letter. unfortunately we cannot use your rejection at this time…