SNL

Sometimes, I feel like I’m in an old Saturday Nite Live Skit. A talk show called “What Were You Thinking?”, where various celebrities were confronted with a decision they made and then had the title question put to them. I seem to recall (although I could be wrong) that among the people who were asked questions was McClean Stevenson, who was asked about his leaving MASH. The one I remember most is someone playing Walter Mondale had the scenario put to him regarding the fact that he promised to raise people’s taxes as part of his campaign for president. And the interviewer queried him over the fact that no one in the history of politics has ever ran on the platform of raising taxes. Not one race, ever. Not from the lowest city mayor to president of the U.S. No one has ever told the voters up front that they would raise the voters’ taxes. So, the interviewer finished: “Walter, what were you thinking?” And Walter sort of mumbles, “Uh, I don’t know.”

So I think the question could be put to me, “Peter. You had a job for life. You could not be fired. You worked twelve hours a week for thirty weeks a year. And yet, in the worst recession since the Great Depression, you decided to quit. Peter, what were you thinking?” And I think right now I would have no better response than Walter’s.