rereading Cyteen after the election

I'm having a hard time getting to sleep after the election. My sleep schedule has been a mess anyhow, and now there's all this excitement. So I went off to go read something soothing and distracting in the bathtub.

( Spoilers for Cyteen and material not appropriate for readers avoiding 2008 politics. )

Or maybe it's just sleep deprivation.

incompetent recruiters

Incompetent Recruiter #1 called my cell phone and began with, "Hello, is [name] home?"
No. I'm not *home*. I want to talk to you, because you're obviously a recruiter, but I'm not home. You're supposed to ask if this is a good time for me to talk. (I didn't say this, because I believe in being nice to recruiters. I just rolled my eyes.)

Incompetent Recruiter #2 called to tell me about a great job opportunity in Boston. I'm interested, even though he can't tell me the name of the company. Then he refers to the location as "in the Boston area." Well, ok. Then he says "Worcester." Is he talking about a different position than the one he called me about the day before? Oh, no. The job has always been in the Worcester area. "In the Worcester area, you say? How far from Worcester do you mean?" (If he were in California, I'd excuse him for thinking Boston and Worcester were effectively in the same place, but a person in Marlborough should know better.)

Incompetent Recruiter #3 called to urge me to apply for an exciting job opportunity. It did look exciting, but the client company had posted on their website that they were looking for a quality engineer with 5 years experience in the industry (I have none.) I pointed this discrepancy out to the recruiter, who said my experience was just perfect for a new job, not posted on the website. I went in for the interview, and they turned me down flat because they're looking for somebody with industry experience.

Incompetent Recruiter #4 called, introducing himself by first name, and reminding me that he had submitted my resume for a quality engineering position 3 weeks ago. He said he had good news, and the company wanted to interview me!
"Oh, that's wonderful!" I said, as I tried to remember his name and what company he had submitted my resume to. "Can you refresh my memory about which position this was?"
*noise of shuffling paper in background* "Well, it's a Quality Engineer position." (Duh. Most of the jobs I'm applying for have that title.) "They're looking for somebody who can do failure analysis and corrective action." (Duh. That's bog-standard quality engineering.)
I finally interrupted to ask, much more gently than I wanted to ask, "Can you tell me what city this job is supposed to be in?" It's the kind of silly little detail that matters to jobseekers but not to recruiters.