More magick beans

Of all the fantasies foisted upon a gullible world by a cynical news media, I suppose this one is the one most likely to make my bile rise. Make your fortune!! Become a [fill in the blank]!

It takes me back many years, when I was scratching out a living at a well-known Boston historic site. Someone brought in a matchbook promotion for something called, I think, the Radical History Review. It read, with obvious sarcasm:

Earn big money! Become a historian!

This little bit of trenchant wit stayed with us long after the matches were gone, for those were the days when people smoked.

But we already were historians. Most of us who snickered at this matchbook already had advanced degrees in the field, or were in graduate school. What are we to make of these jejeune tales, which appear online (at least) about once a week? Headlines pump up hope, and stories that don't puncture that hope by mentioning, "oh yeah. You need a specialised education to get this dream job, and when you get the education, there will be innumerable objections to hiring you."

You might just as well stay in your mud-hole with the other peasants.