BREAKING NEWS: We Quit (thanks to Laurence Simon)
So the transit authority has a fancy new blog called Write on METRO. You might’ve heard about it. Or maybe you’re more familiar with Laurence Simon’s (much better looking) parody site. Anyway, we here at HouStoned are a nosy bunch, so we sent a message to METRO a couple of weeks ago to find out just how much its “communications Web log specialist was pulling in. We’re old friends, so we were a little surprised when the transit authority made us file the request under the Texas Public Information Act. Ten days later ‚Äö√Ñ√¨ wait for it, wait for it ‚Äö√Ñ√¨ we got the goods. METRO’s blogger makes $76,622 a year. Yep, that’s right: Seventy-six thousand, six hundred and twenty two dollars a year. One more time, for the English-impaired: Setenta seis mil, seiscientos veinte dos d‚àö‚â•lares.
No, I don’t begrudge Mary Duvall getting paid to do what some of us do in our underwear. Hey, my dream is to be able to make a living blogging. Getting paid to write? Does it get any better?? If someone is willing to make Ms. Duvall an honest woman…well, more power to her, eh?
No, the problem I have is with paying Ms. Duvall 76 large IN TAX DOLLARS to do something that some of us do in our underwear. If you look at METRO’s blog, I can’t see how what Duvall does involves more than, oh, about 20 minutes’ work per day. I don’t blame Duvall for taking a paying gig as a blogger- Hell, if someone offered to throw $76k at me, I’d be asking where to sign before they were finished asking the question.
Your tax dollars at work? Eh, not exactly…and that’s the problem.
