In Philadelphia, it’s all about where you’re from - which translates to, “Who do you know that I might know?” I was born the fourth of five children to an Irish-German-Polish Catholic family in Southwest Philadelphia, and attended twelve years of Catholic school (Most Blessed Sacrament and West Catholic High School for Girls).
I got married at 19 (what the fuck was I thinking?), attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts as a painting major but dropped out when they wouldn’t let me skip using lead-based paints while I was pregnant with my first child. I attempted nursing school, too, but when an instructor told me I was never to countermand a doctor’s order even if it meant the patient might die, I lost interest.
My then-husband (we owned an inner-city ice cream store) wanted to move to the suburbs and since I wanted a house (there was a housing bubble in University City and we couldn’t afford anything in our neighborhood), I agreed - on the condition that, after a year, I didn’t like it, we’d move back to the city. One year later, I said, “Okay, I want to go back now.” He said, “You’re kidding, right?”
After a year or two as an apprentice lay midwife, I stumbled into journalism. Despite having no degree, I beat out 250 j-school graduates for my first newspaper job. (Go figure. One of the few times talent won out over credentials.)
After 15 years in journalism, I made the decision to go into sales. For several years, I did very well, but constant mergers, a recession and the aftermath of 9/11 resulted in six layoffs in five years, during which time I became a blogger.
And here I am.
So you’re still a young person, eh?
I’m doing the adding-up-the-years thing, and it looks like you’re at least five years younger than me. Which makes you permanently young from my perspective — no matter how hard you try, you can’t catch up.
I’ve always liked the women-with-rifles banner image.
Why is it that “talent” only beats out “credentials” when people GET a job, not when someone else gets one?
Susie, please send me your snail-mail address. I know you’re moving, so send me the one that will work best.
It’ll be OK for you. Promise.
John O
Susie:
I like your style so much I’m considering paying
good money to advertise on SUBURBAN Guerrilla.
See if my site makes the podcast easy or
difficult to get to. Maybe I need
to work on streamlining
it a bit.
the original
Patrick Boggs
(not the person with the same name who is
a drummer in my original hometown of Atlanta)
great to read you this morning in paris
i’m the third of four, swedish speaking minority-finland, 20 years in france which of many in journalism, now marketing, interesting
i’m not ready to keep a blog though i’d love to
happy to read yours
all my encouragements and i’ll forward your blog url
actually stumbled on it via Google Blogs Alert for: “power grid”
View From Iraq
By Susie
The country’s ancient power grid remains unimproved. The Mosul dam is near failure but the Iraqi government will not act to stop potential catastrophe. Iraq’s police are corrupt and unreliable. Iraq’s army is better, but struggling with …
Suburban Guerrilla - http://susiemadrak.com
have a great day !
you and readers that like your style - we must have something in common !
kristina
I just came here after reading your heads-up re the electoral scam petitions that was linked through http://www.earthboppin.net. Thank you for your activism. I was a student at UCSB a long time ago lol and enjoyed the santa barbara synchronicity that has been repeating this past couple of weeks too. I tried to break into the radio station in 95-96 but after doing the junior dorm feed it became a no-go because they didn’t like “conspiracy theorists” and criticism of Zionism, which is typical of the other so-called institutes of higher learning i’ve been around and tried to work through. Of course, what was “fringe” is becoming more popular, so keep on truckin’. Btw, I’d like to see a Ron Paul - Dennis Kucinich ticket after they show more people what frauds their parties are, and what frauds the so-called polls are, not to mention the controlled stupid media. Keep on keeping on!
I like your speech thing on hippies! I can’t stand them. There gross and everywhere. If you ever get a chance, go to google.com and punch in “i hate hippies” and then click on the first one. It’s things you can do to hippies! Acually, I will just paste it on here for you!
What Hippies are good for:
*Parking your car on them.
*Sending them to war so they get killed instead of real people.
*Medical testing (they’re stupid like animals; just knock them out and give them a shot.. they won’t know what happened)
*Using them for ammo. We should pack them into missiles and launch them over towards Iraq. The smell is potent enough to make any enemy surrender.
*Target practice.
*Hamburgers (They want to be in touch with nature, so what better way than to be digested and used as fertilizer? Hippy burgers anyone?)
*Hippies make great janitors (after all, they have the smell down).
*Decorations. Add color to your yard with a few hippies impaled on your fence (Dracula style).
*Hippies make great scapegoats. Bad day at work? Famine? Plague? Cancer? Blame it on hippies.
*Hippies are always good for kicking.
*Hippies are fun to tease (good for laughs when you’re bored)
*Raw sewage storage (Hippies will eat anything).
*Hippies are flamable and make for great campfire fuel.
*Hippies will do free work to clean up the world (those suckers love earth).
*Hippies are great for mixing with cement and throwing off bridges.
*Hippies are perfect for running over (always sleeping on park benches and sidewalks).
Public notification of sex offenders will never protect any child. The list of offenders that the police have will never protect any children. The ONLY thing it can do is produce an instant list of suspects AFTER the child is already abducted. Does a person living 1 foot outside the restricted area make anyone any safer? Do you think they wont go somewhere else? There are no laws anyway that say an offender cant enter a school. How does residentcy laws prevent anyone from doing anything? Will someone inside the area who lived there before the law started make any decision to offend or not just because of where their house is located. Anyone who urinated outside because of stupid judgement while intoxicated is subject to the same laws as a criminal who raped a 2 year old baby. These laws must end now. Laws must be enacted to seriously punish repeat and violent offenders, not people who have mooned a bus, dove in a lake nude, or streaked across a sports field.
Ok, so which lady is you, of the ones holding the rifles. Couldn’t help myself. Affectionately Bb
[...] Who I Am [...]
Bb
This rifle pix looks like a photo of Susie with fellow West Catholic student council members. The school was so crowd they used to line the hallways when classes changed to prevent fights. After all we did have future members of MOVE in out midst.
job to job to job to job to blogger…… ?
Being a Hillary fan you might enjoy this thread…
http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6857
Apple runs a happy factory in China.
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/08/iphone-ships-wi.html