208: Office Politics - This American Life
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00:00 00:00 Transcript Share This American Life Life Partners How to Listen Episodes Recommended About Overview Staff Announcements Fellowships Jobs Music Make Radio On The Road FAQ Submissions Merch Contact Us Our Other Shows Merch Follow Us Life Partners Subscribe to our newsletter Full episode Toggle Audio and Transcript Sync Transcript | Episode #208 | February 27, 2026 208: Office Politics Note: This American Life is produced for the ear and designed to be heard.
00:00 00:00 文字记录 分享此 美国生活 生活伙伴 如何收听 剧集 推荐 关于 概述 员工公告 奖学金 工作 音乐 在路上制作电台 常见问题解答 提交 商品 联系我们 我们的其他节目 商品 关注我们 生活伙伴 订阅我们的时事通讯 整集 切换音频和文字记录同步 文字记录 | 内容第 208 集 | 2026 年 2 月 27 日 208：办公室政治 注：《美国生活》是为耳朵而制作的，旨在让人们听到。
If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page.
如果可以的话，我们强烈建议您收听音频，其中包括页面上没有的情感和重点。
Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.
文字记录是使用语音识别软件和人工转录员结合生成的，可能包含错误。
Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
请在印刷版引用前检查相应的音频。
Prologue: Prologue Ira Glass From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life, distributed by Public Radio International.
序言：序言 Ira Glass 来自 WBEZ 芝加哥，这就是美国生活，由国际公共广播电台发行。
I'm Ira Glass.
我是艾拉·格拉斯。
Jacobs and the other guys did not like their boss, Manright.
雅各布斯和其他人不喜欢他们的老板曼赖特。
Manright was full of himself, he took credit for things that they did, he was hard to deal with.
曼赖特自以为是，他把别人所做的事情归功于自己，很难对付。
And they set out to sabotage him.
他们开始破坏他。
A sociologist named Calvin Morrill, watched how they did it as part of a study of office politics in different companies.
一位名叫卡尔文·莫里尔（Calvin Morrill）的社会学家在对不同公司办公室政治的研究中观察了他们是如何做到这一点的。
These guys all worked for an old line banking firm that he calls Old Financial.
这些人都在一家老牌银行公司工作，他称之为“旧金融”。
All the names in this story have been changed.
这个故事中的所有名字都已更改。
In traditional companies like this one, Morrill says, all the politics happen in secret.
莫里尔说，在像这样的传统公司中，所有的政治活动都是秘密进行的。
It's all subterfuge.
这都是诡计。
Here is how Manright was destroyed by Jacobs.
这就是曼莱特是如何被雅各布斯摧毁的。
Manright used to rely on this fellow, Jacobs, to prepare him before he would go before the senior executive committee meeting.
曼赖特过去常常依靠雅各布斯这个家伙在高级执行委员会会议之前为他做好准备。
And Jacobs is very good, very smart guy.
雅各布斯是一个非常优秀、非常聪明的人。
And he could anticipate some of the questions that his boss would be asked at these meetings.
他可以预见到他的老板在这些会议上会被问到的一些问题。
And so when he prepped him, he would just neglect to tell his boss about some of the key questions that he could anticipate being asked.
因此，当他为他做准备时，他只是忽略了告诉他的老板他可能会被问到的一些关键问题。
And there his boss would stand at the committee meeting, naked, without the information that he needed.
他的老板会赤身裸体地站在委员会会议上，没有他需要的信息。
And eventually, he was removed as a result of this.
最终，他因此被免职。
Now did Manright understand that he had been sabotaged?
现在曼赖特明白他遭到了破坏吗？
He didn't.
他没有。
Actually, he got back each time-- this happened to him over the course of several meetings, where he was mis-prepped, if you will-- and each time he came back, he was firmly convinced that his subordinates were incompetent, because how else could this have happened?
事实上，他每次回来——这在他的几次会议中都发生过，如果你愿意的话，他准备不当——每次他回来，他都坚信他的下属不称职，因为否则怎么会发生这种情况？
It never dawned on him that they were so competent that they might actually be intentionally engaged in sabotage.
他万万没想到，他们的能力如此之强，竟然可能会故意从事破坏活动。
Another multibillion dollar company that Morrill studied is one that he calls Playco, in the toy and education product business.
莫里尔研究的另一家价值数十亿美元的公司是他称之为 Playco 的公司，从事玩具和教育产品业务。
Unlike Old Financial-- where bosses were bosses and underlings were underlings, and so all the scheming had to go on in secret-- at Playco, there was no real hierarchy.
与旧金融不同——老板是老板，下属是下属，所以所有的阴谋都必须秘密进行——在 Playco，没有真正的等级制度。
It wasn't clear who was in charge of whom.
目前尚不清楚谁负责谁。
And while that might sound like a kind of nice place to work, with no big bosses, it turns out that with no one absolutely in charge to make decisions and keep people in line, all the fighting was right out in the open.
虽然这听起来像是一个不错的工作场所，没有大老板，但事实证明，没有人绝对负责做出决策并让人们保持一致，所有的争斗都是公开的。
At meetings, people would try to humiliate and out argue each other.
在会议上，人们会试图羞辱对方并避免争论。
They would form alliances.
他们将结成联盟。
The executives at Playco would talk all the time about honor and respect, as if they were medieval knights, or maybe mob figures.
Playco 的高管们总是谈论荣誉和尊重，就好像他们是中世纪的骑士，或者可能是黑帮人物。
Then I even witnessed violence in this firm between executives.
然后我什至亲眼目睹了这家公司高管之间的暴力行为。
One of the incidents I talk about was about two executives actually getting into a fistfight in front of the world headquarters of this multinational firm.
我谈到的其中一件事是，两名高管在这家跨国公司的全球总部前发生了打架事件。
Yeah, just tell what happened between those two.
是啊，说说两人之间发生的事情吧。
Yeah, well one guy was called-- I call him Greer.
是的，有一个人叫——我叫他格里尔。
And the other guy actually had a nickname, called the Terminator.
而另一个人其实有一个绰号，叫做终结者。
And he was called the Terminator because, as this one guy said, he liked to hunt big game.
他被称为终结者，因为正如这个人所说，他喜欢狩猎大型动物。
He liked to look for executives who he could best in arguments at meetings.
他喜欢寻找最擅长在会议上争论的高管。
And so these guys were parking their cars in the parking lot.
所以这些人把车停在停车场。
And they called each other out, essentially.
他们本质上是互相呼唤。
Greer accused the Terminator of playing around with women at a local health club and embarrassing the corporation.
格里尔指责终结者在当地一家健身俱乐部与女性嬉戏，让公司难堪。
Meanwhile, the Terminator accused Greer of being a weak executive.
与此同时，《终结者》指责格里尔是一位软弱的高管。
This thing escalated.
这件事升级了。
And after a few minutes, one of them had the other over his Lotus sports car.
几分钟后，其中一人将另一人压在了他的莲花跑车上。
There is this idea in capitalism that companies are making decisions, and products, and strategy, based on rational evaluation of the market and their customers.
资本主义有这样一种观念，即公司根据对市场及其客户的理性评估来制定决策、产品和战略。
To what degree is that true, based on what you saw?
根据您所看到的情况，这在多大程度上是正确的？
And to what degree are decisions being made based on office politics, and not a rational evaluation of where their company is in the market?
决策在多大程度上是基于办公室政治，而不是对公司市场地位的理性评估？
There is some rationality.
有一定的合理性。
But thinking about the bottom line is sometimes a myth that outsiders tell each other about how decisions are made.
但思考底线有时是一个神话，局外人互相告诉对方决策是如何制定的。
And it's not always about the bottom line.
而且这并不总是与底线有关。
It's about politics with one another, maneuvering with one another.
这是关于彼此之间的政治、彼此之间的操纵。
Given all that, given all the conflict that Calvin Morrill saw at all kinds of offices, what is surprising is not how many fistfights there are in offices, but how few.
考虑到这一切，考虑到卡尔文·莫里尔在各种办公室里看到的所有冲突，令人惊讶的不是办公室里有多少打斗，而是有多少。
I know I've been in one.
我知道我曾经是其中之一。
This happened years ago on a public radio show that was just starting up.
这发生在几年前的一个刚刚开始的公共广播节目中。
And I do not think of myself as much of a fighter.
我不认为自己是一个斗士。
But here's how it went down.
但事情是这样的。
The guy who raised the money to start this show had this vision.
筹集资金开始这个节目的人有这样的愿景。
And what his vision was, was he said, what if there were a radio show where you could turn on every day, and you would hear something like Spike Lee, and Philip Glass, the composer, and Stephen Hawking, the physicist, sitting down together, and just talking, talking about the things that interest them in common.
他说，他的愿景是什么，如果有一个广播节目，你每天都可以打开，你会听到斯派克·李、作曲家菲利普·格拉斯和物理学家斯蒂芬·霍金坐在一起，谈论他们共同感兴趣的事情。
So this show was two hours a day.
所以这个节目每天两个小时。
This guy had never worked on a daily program.
这家伙从来没有参与过每日节目。
He had done other stuff, but never a daily program.
他还做过其他事情，但从来没有做过日常计划。
I and a number of the other people who worked on the show had worked on daily shows.
我和其他一些参与该节目的人都曾参与过日常节目。
At the time, by the way, I was not on the air.
顺便说一句，当时我不在广播中。
I was just a producer.
我只是一个制片人。
And so we're trying to start this show.
所以我们正在尝试开始这个节目。
And every day, we would come in, and we would work, and work, and work, and work.
每天，我们都会进来，工作、工作、工作、工作。
And every day we would have this experience of-- we would say, OK, here is what we think we can do.
每天我们都会有这样的经历——我们会说，好吧，这就是我们认为我们可以做的事情。
It was a very, very small staff.
这是一个非常非常小的员工队伍。
Very small staff.
工作人员非常少。
And every day we would say, OK, here is what we think we can do this week.
我们每天都会说，好吧，这就是我们认为本周可以做的事情。
And we would lay out the programs, and this, and this, and this, and this.
我们会列出计划，还有这个、这个、这个、这个。
And at the end of the whole thing-- all this work had gone into it-- at the end of the whole thing, the guy who had raised all the money and was our boss would say, you know, that's really very nice.
在整个事情结束时——所有这些工作都已经投入其中——在整个事情结束时，筹集了所有资金并且是我们老板的人会说，你知道，这真的非常好。
But it's just not our original idea.
但这不是我们最初的想法。
It's not Spike Lee, and Philip Glass, and Stephen Hawking sitting down and talking to each other.
这不是斯派克·李、菲利普·格拉斯和斯蒂芬·霍金坐下来互相交谈。
And those of us who had worked on daily programs would always say to him, you know, that is a perfectly good idea.
我们这些从事日常节目工作的人总是会对他说，你知道，这是一个非常好的主意。
That is a very valid idea.
这是一个非常有效的想法。
A perfectly good idea.
一个非常好的主意。
But you have to remember that you are on for two hours a day.
但你必须记住，你每天要工作两个小时。
You have two people making phone calls and booking this, you have one or two tape cutters, one or two other people.
您有两个人打电话并预订，您有一两个胶带切割机，还有一两个其他人。
It was a very, very small staff.
这是一个非常非常小的员工队伍。
And so even if you could get Spike Lee, and Philip Glass, and Stephen Hawking into a room, and you could figure out what in the world they actually have to say to each other, which would take a certain amount of research and time on someone's part, even if you could make all this happen, that's only one hour.
因此，即使你可以让斯派克·李、菲利普·格拉斯和斯蒂芬·霍金进入一个房间，你可以弄清楚他们到底要对彼此说什么，这需要某人进行一定的研究和时间，即使你能让这一切发生，那也只有一个小时。
That's only going to be one show.
这只是一场演出。
And so we have to think about what's going to happen in all these other hours.
所以我们必须考虑在其他时间里会发生什么。
And so that's a very good idea, a very fine idea.
所以这是一个非常好的主意，一个非常好的主意。
But here are all these other ideas that we're going to do to fill all this other time too.
但这里还有我们将要做的所有其他想法，以填补所有其他时间。
And this went on for day after day and week after week.
这种情况持续了一天又一天、一周又一周。
And people were working very, very hard and sort of burning out.
人们工作得非常非常努力，而且有点精疲力竭。
And finally, after weeks of this, we're all standing around.
最后，经过几周的时间，我们都站在那里了。
And we've just finished our first five shows.
我们刚刚结束了前五场演出。
And it has been grueling.
这一直很辛苦。
It has been really, really hard.
这真的非常非常困难。
And we're evaluating what to do next, and how we should change the format of the show, and all that kind of thing.
我们正在评估下一步该做什么，以及我们应该如何改变节目的形式，等等。
And we get to the end of this long, long discussion.
我们终于结束了这场漫长的讨论。
And it seems like we're all on the same page.
看起来我们都在同一页面上。
And at last, we're all in accord.
最后，我们意见一致。
Here is where we've been, here is where we're going.
这是我们去过的地方，也是我们要去的地方。
And our boss says, well, you know, there's one thing that we haven't gotten to.
我们的老板说，好吧，你知道，有一件事我们还没有做到。
And that is, I think we're forgetting the original idea of the show, that really what it needs to be is-- I think every hour needs to be more like-- well, just imagine if Spike Lee, and Philip Glass, and Stephen Hawking could sit down together and just chat about whatever.
也就是说，我认为我们忘记了这部剧的最初想法，它真正需要的是——我认为每个小时都需要更像——好吧，想象一下，如果斯派克·李、菲利普·格拉斯和史蒂芬·霍金可以坐在一起聊天。
And it had been a really hard few weeks.
这几周真的很艰难。
And as Nelson Mandela said in a very different context, you know, we had tried reason, but reason had failed to produce a solution.
正如纳尔逊·曼德拉在一个非常不同的背景下所说的那样，你知道，我们尝试过理性，但理性未能产生解决方案。
And so violence was our only option.
所以暴力是我们唯一的选择。
And I didn't really see anything else to do.
我真的没有看到任何其他事情可做。
Well, to say I didn't see anything implies a kind of thinking that really wasn't exactly happening.
好吧，说我没有看到任何东西意味着一种实际上没有发生的想法。
It was just straight, pretty much gut instinct.
这很直接，几乎是直觉。
And I walked over, and I punched him in the stomach.
我走过去，一拳打在他的肚子上。
And his reaction, I have to say, was not really as satisfying as I was hoping for.
我不得不说，他的反应并不像我希望的那样令人满意。
He was sort of cushiony.
他有点软弱。
I didn't feel like I was making much of an impression.
我觉得我没有给人留下太多印象。
And we're standing very, very close now, closer, I think, than we had ever stood to each other.
我们现在站得非常非常近，我想，比我们以前站得更近。
And he looks me in the eyes.
他看着我的眼睛。
And he's a little bit sweaty.
而且他有点出汗了。
And he doesn't get mad at all.
而且他根本不生气。
The whole thing just makes him get really, really sincere.
整件事让他变得非常非常真诚。
And he says, "You know, Ira, I really think that you should think about what you're doing for a second." Which I have to say, just made me madder.
他说：“你知道，艾拉，我真的认为你应该考虑一下你在做什么。”我不得不说，这让我更生气。
Like if you're really mad at somebody, and they just start to talk to you like they're your therapist, it just makes you madder.
就像如果你真的生某人的气，而他们却开始像你的治疗师一样和你说话，这只会让你更生气。
And so I punched him again.
于是我又打了他一拳。
And again, not terribly satisfying and sort of a cushiony kind of feeling.
再说一次，不是很令人满意，有点软垫的感觉。
And punches don't make as much of a sound in real life as you think they might.
在现实生活中，拳头发出的声音并不像你想象的那么大。
And again, he sort of looks me-- our faces very close to each other-- looks me in the eye, and he says, "You know, Ira, I think you're really having some feelings here that maybe you might be expressing a different way." Which of course, made me punch him again.
再一次，他看着我——我们的脸距离彼此很近——看着我的眼睛，他说，“你知道，艾拉，我认为你真的有一些感受，也许你可能会以不同的方式表达。”当然，这让我又打了他一拳。
At this point, at the third punch, pretty much people had gathered around us.
此时，第三拳的时候，我们周围已经聚集了很多人。
And I was pulled off by the public radio staff of the show, which included a guy in a wheelchair, which gives you a sense of the tough kind of fight that was going on here.
我被节目的公共广播工作人员拉下车，其中包括一个坐在轮椅上的人，这让你感受到这里正在发生的艰苦战斗。
And I say all this now just to illustrate that even in the offices of an outfit known for its calm-voiced, let us all sit down together and reason together kind of reasonableness, even in the offices of public radio, even here, in the office where I speak to you from right now, feelings are so extreme that they can lead to hitting.
我现在说这一切只是为了说明，即使在一个以冷静着称的机构的办公室里，让我们大家坐下来一起理性地推理，即使在公共广播电台的办公室里，即使在这里，在我现在向你们讲话的办公室里，情绪也是如此极端，以至于可能导致殴打。
Our relationships at our jobs, I think, contain all of the feelings we have in all of our personal relationships.
我认为，我们工作中的关系包含了我们所有个人关系中的所有感受。
There are people you like, people you don't like.
有你喜欢的人，也有你不喜欢的人。
There is gratitude, there is resentment, there is jealousy.
有感恩，有怨恨，有嫉妒。
It's all there.
一切都在那里。
All the feelings are there.
所有的感觉都在那里。
Except in the workplace we can't express it, because it's a workplace.
除了在工作场所我们不能表达它，因为这是一个工作场所。
You have to keep it bottled up inside, and then it ends up seeping out in all these other ways.
你必须把它藏在里面，然后它最终会以所有其他方式渗出。
Well, today on our program, Office Politics, we bring you three stories of conflict and high drama from our nation's workplaces.
那么，今天在我们的《办公室政治》节目中，我们为您带来三个来自我们国家工作场所的冲突和戏剧性的故事。
Act One, Hang in There Kitty Cat, It's Almost Friday.
第一幕，坚持住，凯蒂猫，快周五了。
In that act, a lowly office worker gets in a jam, and discovers that in times of trouble, when all else has failed, when all hope is gone, companies in her industry turn to one woman, one woman, my friend, in a suburban home in Long Island, who solves their corporate problems without ever turning off the TV that plays in the background.
在那一幕中，一位地位低下的办公室职员陷入了困境，她发现，在遇到麻烦的时候，当一切都失败了，当所有的希望都破灭时，她所在行业的公司会求助于长岛郊区的一位女士，一位女士，我的朋友，她在长岛郊区的家里解决了他们的公司问题，而无需关掉后台播放的电视。
Act Two, Sheetcakes in the Conference Room, Whiskey After Dark.
第二幕，会议室里的薄饼，天黑后的威士忌。
David Rakoff discusses the world of birthdays and other holidays, as they are celebrated on the job.
大卫·拉科夫 (David Rakoff) 讨论了工作中庆祝生日和其他节日的世界。
Act Three, When the Job to Get You off the Streets Is on the Streets.
第三幕，当让你离开街头的工作就在街头时。
In that act we hear stories of the intricate office politics that take place in a location where you might not suspect there is any politics because there is no office.
在那一幕中，我们听到了错综复杂的办公室政治的故事，这些故事发生在一个你可能不会怀疑有任何政治的地方，因为那里没有办公室。
Stay with us.
留在我们身边。
Act One, Hang in There Kitty Cat, It's Almost Friday.
第一幕，坚持住，凯蒂猫，快周五了。
Starlee Kine tells the tale in this act of an office problem that refused to be solved by ordinary means, and so extraordinary means had to be employed.
斯塔莉·凯恩在这一幕中讲述了一个办公室问题无法用普通手段解决的故事，因此必须采用非同寻常的手段。
Kelly worked for small start up.
凯利在一家小型初创公司工作。
There were only about a dozen people on the staff.
工作人员只有十几人。
And the office was just one big room with no walls, like in a classroom.
办公室只是一间没有墙壁的大房间，就像教室一样。
And a lot of the same office politics that happens behind closed doors in other offices happened in this one, except without the doors.
在其他办公室关起门后发生的许多相同的办公室政治也发生在这间办公室，除了没有门。
It didn't take long before the employees took on the established roles.
没过多久，员工们就开始承担起既定的角色。
There was a cool kid, the flirt, the gossip, the nice boss who was really mean, the mean boss who was really nice.
有一个很酷的孩子，调情，八卦，友善的老板却很刻薄，刻薄的老板却很友善。
There was even the person who functioned as the unofficial psychologist.
甚至还有一个充当非官方心理学家的人。
Every office has one, the person who is everyone's confidant, who listens to your problems and gives you a shoulder to cry on.
每个办公室都有一个人，他是每个人的知己，倾听你的问题，给你一个哭泣的肩膀。
In this office, though, the politics were so extreme that even she couldn't be trusted.
然而，在这个办公室里，政治是如此极端，以至于连她都无法信任。
Our person would come in with the person who was crying.
我们的人会和哭泣的人一起进来。
And the person who was crying would be like, "Thanks.
哭泣的人会说：“谢谢。
I'll buy you a beer sometime.
有时间我请你喝杯啤酒。
I really needed to get that off my chest." And the psychologist would be like, "It's OK, anytime.
我真的需要把这件事从心里吐出来。”心理学家会说：“随时都可以。
I'll be right back." And literally walk over to the person, who the other person had just been saying is torturing them, making their life hell, and that they think might want to kill them, and then go over and be like, "You see that person sitting right there?
我马上就回来。”然后走到那个人面前，另一个人刚才说那个人正在折磨他们，让他们的生活变得地狱，他们认为可能想杀了他们，然后走过去说，“你看到那个人坐在那里吗？
Yeah.
是的。
The one right in front of you?
就在你面前的那个？
She thinks that you might want to kill her."
她认为你可能想杀了她。”
Since it was a start up, the company was having trouble even staying in business.
由于是一家初创公司，公司甚至连维持经营都遇到困难。
Pressure was high, hours were long.
压力很大，时间很长。
There was lots of stress, and breakdowns, and tears, and fighting, and of course, sex.
有很多压力、崩溃、眼泪、争吵，当然还有性。
There was one person, in particular, who was sleeping with one of the women in the office.
特别是有一个人正在和办公室里的一名女性睡觉。
And until the last day, I think that most of the staff thought he was gay.
直到最后一天，我认为大多数员工都认为他是同性恋。
There was a woman who was heterosexual, but obviously had a crush on the one lesbian we had in the office, like a hot and heavy crush.
有一个女人是异性恋，但显然迷恋着我们办公室里的一个女同性恋，就像一种热烈而沉重的迷恋。
And also on the men, too.
对男人来说也是如此。
She doesn't discriminate.
她不歧视。
And a certain amount of sexual tension is great.
一定程度的性紧张是很大的。
It gets you to get up in the morning, to actually wash your hair.
它让你早上起床，真正洗头。
But in this office it was flying at you from such strange directions.
但在这个办公室里，它从如此奇怪的方向向你飞来。
And there were couplings happening within office.
办公室内也发生了耦合。
From Kelly's perspective, the creepiest coupling was between her two bosses.
从凯利的角度来看，最令人毛骨悚然的结合是她的两位老板之间的关系。
The three of them were working super closely on a new project.
他们三人正在一个新项目上密切合作。
The two bosses had both pretty much already hated her, and it had been hard enough to deal with them as individuals.
两个老板都已经很讨厌她了，单独对付他们已经够难的了。
But together they formed this sort of invincible two-headed monster of hate.
但他们共同组成了这种无敌的仇恨双头怪物。
And Kelly was their number one target.
凯利是他们的第一目标。
When you're working with a very small staff, it's like being stuck on a ship with people.
当你和很少的员工一起工作时，就像和人一起被困在船上一样。
That's your only existence at all.
那是你唯一的存在。
So let's say you're stuck on this boat.
假设你被困在这条船上了。
You're out at sea, calm waters in the beginning, a lot of celebrating, I like you, do you like me?
你在海上，一开始风平浪静，有很多庆祝活动，我喜欢你，你喜欢我吗？
I like you too.
我也喜欢你。
Yeah!
是的！
And then things start to get rougher.
然后事情开始变得更加艰难。
Things start to get rougher.
事情开始变得更加艰难。
People are testy, because they've been stuck in that boat for a long time.
人们容易暴躁，因为他们已经被困在那条船上很长时间了。
You now know things, things that you don't even want to know about people.
你现在知道了一些事情，一些你甚至不想知道的关于人们的事情。
You're forced to know in those environments.
在这些环境中你被迫知道。
So imagine that.
所以想象一下。
And then imagine the two people that I need to work with on a daily basis not talking to me, and not liking me, and sleeping together.
然后想象一下我每天需要一起工作的两个人不跟我说话，不喜欢我，却睡在一起。
So imagine we're all on that boat.
想象一下我们都在那条船上。
And we have to make room for them to sleep with each other.
我们必须为他们腾出空间让他们一起睡觉。
We're like, OK, move over on the cots.
我们就说，好吧，搬到小床上去吧。
They just wouldn't make eye contact with me, wouldn't talk to me for the entire deadline that we were on.
他们只是不会与我进行眼神交流，在整个截止日期期间不会与我交谈。
And also this person is only sitting six feet away from me.
而且这个人距离我只有六英尺远。
So the uncomfortability of that was through the roof.
所以那种不舒服的感觉已经达到了顶峰。
And then, slowly the ship began to sink.
然后，船慢慢地开始下沉。
They were running out of money.
他们的钱快用完了。
The bosses grew paranoid, and started picking off their employees one by one.
老板们变得偏执起来，开始一一挑选员工。
A person answered the phone incorrectly, and was fired that same day.
一个人接听电话错误，当天就被解雇了。
Malaise set in.
身体不适。
Employees started coming in late or not at all.
员工开始迟到或根本不来。
No one believed in the project anymore.
没有人再相信这个项目了。
And then one day, some irreplaceable photographs that Kelly was in charge of went missing.
然后有一天，凯利负责的一些不可替代的照片丢失了。
I looked everywhere.
我四处张望。
I looked in the bookcases, under my desk.
我看了看桌子底下的书柜。
I looked in other people's offices on our floor.
我看了我们这一层其他人的办公室。
I looked in the drawers that were public.
我查看了公共抽屉。
We had public drawers where people could store stuff.
我们有公共抽屉，人们可以在那里存放东西。
And then we had drawers that were private, which I didn't go into when people were there.
然后我们有私人抽屉，当有人在的时候我不会进去。
But I did get so desperate that I went through everyone's stuff.
但我确实太绝望了，所以我把每个人的东西都看完了。
I was getting irrational.
我变得不理智了。
Kelly suspected that one of her bosses had stolen the photographs.
凯利怀疑她的一位老板偷了这些照片。
They knew that she had to return the photos to the photographer, and that her reputation was on the line.
他们知道她必须将照片归还给摄影师，而她的声誉也岌岌可危。
It would be a huge embarrassment if she had to actually call the photographer and tell him they were gone.
如果她不得不打电话给摄影师并告诉他他们已经走了，那将是一个巨大的尴尬。
In her office, sabotage was becoming trendy.
在她的办公室里，破坏行为正变得流行。
Kelly has seen other examples of it.
凯利还见过其他例子。
It just had never happened to her.
这种事从来没有发生在她身上。
She thought all was lost, until a friend told her what other companies in the industry did when objects like this couldn't be found.
她以为一切都完了，直到一位朋友告诉她，当找不到这样的物品时，业内其他公司是怎么做的。
If the situation arises, they will hire a psychic to help them locate the images.
如果出现这种情况，他们会聘请通灵者来帮助他们找到图像。
A girl gave me a number of someone who she said was certified by the state of the New York, was a crime psychic.
一个女孩给了我一些人的号码，她说这个人是经过纽约州认证的犯罪灵媒。
I called her.
我打电话给她。
She said, OK, I've got a half an hour for you two days from now.
她说，好吧，两天后我给你一个半小时的时间。
Come.
来。
Apparently once you've accepted the notion that your bosses are actually trying to sabotage you, the idea of going to a psychic just doesn't seem that crazy anymore.
显然，一旦你接受了你的老板实际上试图破坏你的想法，去找通灵师的想法似乎就不再那么疯狂了。
It seems appropriate.
看来是合适的。
Kelly called the psychic from her desk in plain sight of everyone, including the suspected boss.
凯莉在所有人（包括可疑的老板）的众目睽睽之下，在办公桌上召唤了通灵者。
She didn't even bother lowering her voice.
她甚至懒得压低声音。
And then she set about following the psychic's instructions.
然后她开始遵循通灵者的指示。
She took Polaroid photos of the office and all the people working there.
她给办公室和所有在那里工作的人拍了宝丽来照片。
And then she got on a train to the psychic's house in Long Island.
然后她乘火车前往长岛的通灵者之家。
She was hoping that the psychic would be able to tell her something, anything about where the photos were.
她希望通灵者能够告诉她一些事情，任何关于照片在哪里的事情。
What she got was a whole lot more.
她得到的远不止这些。
The psychic lit a cigarette while Kelly laid out the Polaroids she had taken.
通灵者点燃了一支香烟，凯利摊开她拿来的宝丽来照片。
Then the psychic started describing the subtlest nuances of her coworkers' personalities.
然后，通灵者开始描述她同事性格中最微妙的细微差别。
Sometimes she would just say words, like, "Oh, she's so insecure." As if she was having like a whole other conversation that wasn't with me.
有时她只会说一些话，比如“哦，她太没有安全感了。”就好像她正在进行一场不是与我交谈的谈话。
And she'd be like, "Oh, she's not pretty.
她会说：“哦，她不漂亮。
Oh." And she would start to feel sorry.
哦。”她会开始感到抱歉。
And then she would be like, "Oh, OK, he doesn't like women.
然后她会说，“哦，好吧，他不喜欢女人。
Not like he's gay.
不像他是同性恋。
He just never thinks that women are worth that much."
他只是从来不认为女人有那么值钱。”
Of all the reading rooms in all the homes of all the psychics in Long Island, Kelly walked into this one, the home of Ann, the office politics psychic.
在长岛所有通灵者家里的所有阅览室中，凯利走进了这一间，办公室政治通灵者安的家。
Ann had Kelly draw a little map of her office with lines indicating where everyone sat.
安让凯利画了一张她办公室的小地图，上面的线条标明了每个人的座位。
The psychic went from desk to desk to desk, describing the office politics between Kelly's coworkers.
通灵者从一张桌子走到另一张桌子，描述了凯利同事之间的办公室政治。
These two are always gossiping with each other.
这两个人总是互相闲聊。
Don't trust them.
不要相信他们。
This one was your friend, but they didn't like her, so she got fired.
这位是你的朋友，但他们不喜欢她，所以她被解雇了。
He's sweet.
他很可爱。
You can tell him things.
你可以告诉他一些事情。
Then she got to Kelly's two bosses.
然后她找到了凯利的两位老板。
And then she said, "Oh, OK, the person who sits here talks to the person who sits here all day long."
然后她说：“哦，好吧，坐在这里的人和整天坐在这里的人说话。”
She actually drew a line between the two bosses who are sleeping with each other?
她竟然在两个睡在一起的boss之间划清了界限？
She drew the line.
她划定了界限。
Well, she would draw a little stick person behind the desk.
好吧，她会在桌子后面画一个小棍子人。
And then she would draw another little stick person.
然后她会画另一个小棍子人。
And she'd be like, oh, this area to this area.
她会说，哦，从这个区域到这个区域。
My two main bosses, she was saying, were constantly talking to each other all day.
她说，我的两个主要老板整天都在不断地交谈。
She went into things that I didn't even know happened, that later I found out happened.
她讲述了一些我什至不知道发生的事情，后来我才发现发生了。
Like they went on a trip.
就像他们去旅行一样。
She knew, basically, that he was living at her place.
她基本上知道他住在她那儿。
There was not anything that she didn't know.
没有什么是她不知道的。
The same amount of information, with added psychic phenomenon, as if she'd been sitting next to me the whole six months.
同样数量的信息，加上额外的心灵现象，就好像她整整六个月都坐在我旁边一样。
I've never called Miss Cleo.
我从来没有给克莱奥小姐打过电话。
I've never had a tarot reading or had my tea leaves read.
我从来没有读过塔罗牌，也没有读过我的茶叶。
I've never crossed over.
我从来没有穿越过。
But when I heard there was a psychic on Long Island who could tell who is lying about breaking the office fax machine, I had to go.
但当我听说长岛有一位通灵者可以辨别谁在破坏办公室传真机的问题上撒谎时，我不得不离开。
I called and made an appointment.
我打电话预约了。
She had one stipulation for letting me come, no debunking.
她让我来有一个条件，不能揭穿。
Ann lives with her elderly mother and her seven year old daughter.
安与年迈的母亲和七岁的女儿住在一起。
When I get there, grandmother and granddaughter are nestled in easy chairs, watching Golden Girls.
当我到达那里时，祖母和孙女正坐在安乐椅上观看《黄金女郎》。
Ann is doing a reading in the back.
安正在后面读书。
And her mother turns to me and asks if I'm there for a reading too.
她妈妈转向我，问我是否也去那里读书。
I tell her I'm not.
我告诉她我不是。
We watch TV together in silence for a few minutes.
我们一起静静地看电视几分钟。
And then Ann's mother turns back to me and asks if I'm there for a reading.
然后安的妈妈回头看向我，问我是不是来读书的。
This pattern continues for the rest of the show.
这种模式在节目的其余部分继续存在。
I finally give in and say, yes, I'm there for a reading.
我最终屈服了，说，是的，我是来读书的。
Then she gives up and shuffles off to the kitchen.
然后她放弃了，拖着脚步走向厨房。
And I can hear her muttering under her breath, [BEEP] gypsies.
我可以听到她小声嘀咕，[嘟嘟]吉普赛人。
Then Ann comes in and takes me to her reading room.
然后安进来带我去她的阅览室。
--the floor we kept the red carpeting.
——地板上我们保留了红地毯。
It is a root shakra.
它是根帝释天。
And it gives me a lot of energy, because I'm actually in a beta level sleep state.
它给了我很多能量，因为我实际上处于贝塔级睡眠状态。
So I'm kind of groggy.
所以我有点昏昏沉沉的。
And the best thing to wake you up in the morning is that nice red carpeting.
早上叫醒你的最好的事情就是漂亮的红地毯。
Ann's reading room looks like a suburban guest bedroom.
安的阅览室看起来就像郊区的客房。
There is a daybed that she likes because it makes it feel more like a therapist's office, pictures of her family, and a TV cluttered with chachkas, like a jar labeled, ashes of problem customers.
有一张她喜欢的沙发床，因为它让人感觉更像是治疗师的办公室，里面有她家人的照片，电视上堆满了查奇卡，就像一个贴着问题顾客骨灰标签的罐子。
Ann prefers to be called a clairaudient trance medium, which means that she can hear stuff that isn't there, as opposed to seeing stuff that isn't there.
安更喜欢被称为顺耳催眠灵媒，这意味着她可以听到不存在的东西，而不是看到不存在的东西。
She goes into a trance, and then her three spirit guides feed her the information.
她进入恍惚状态，然后她的三位精神向导向她提供信息。
When I talked to Ann on the phone, she told me she would be in a trance when I got there.
当我和安通电话时，她告诉我，当我到达那里时，她会处于恍惚状态。
In fact, she had been in a trance when she told me that.
事实上，当她告诉我这件事时，她一直处于恍惚状态。
It turns out Ann is almost always in a trance.
事实证明，安几乎总是处于恍惚状态。
At her house, I saw her receive payment for her services, recommend a good restaurant, and usher her client to the door, all while in a trance.
在她家，我看到她在恍惚中收取服务费、推荐一家好餐馆、引客人上门。
This seemed to be a complete abuse of the word trance, not to be debunkey or anything.
这似乎完全是对“恍惚”这个词的滥用，并不是要揭穿什么。
Appointments with Ann are hard to get.
与安的约会很难。
She'll take anybody, but she is usually booked months in advance.
她会带任何人，但她通常会提前几个月预订。
People come for the usual stuff, like channeling dead relatives.
人们来这里是为了一些平常的事情，比如通灵死去的亲人。
But she does a big business of finding lost objects.
但她做的是寻找丢失物品的大生意。
And a large percentage of her clients come about problems at work.
她的大部分客户都在工作中遇到了问题。
If you think about it, that's where you spend most of your waking time during the day, in most cases, is in offices.
如果你仔细想想，你白天醒着的时间大部分都花在办公室里，而且大多数情况下都是在办公室里。
That's why there are so many issues that people have-- the variety of issues, I couldn't begin to count or measure.
这就是为什么人们有如此多的问题——各种各样的问题，我无法开始计算或衡量。
You name it, I've had them all.
你能想到的，我都拥有了。
I watch Ann's clients drift in and out of her home from morning till night.
我从早到晚看着安的客户进进出出。
And what I learn is this-- it doesn't matter that the people work in different kinds of jobs, all their stories are the same.
我学到的是——人们从事不同的工作并不重要，他们的故事都是一样的。
There's the cop with the corrupt boss intent on making his life hell.
警察和腐败的老板一心想让他的生活变得一团糟。
You know, you could be sitting in a room with five people.
你知道，你可能和五个人坐在一个房间里。
He would walk in and say hello to the other four, and just ignore me like I wasn't there.
他会走进去向其他四个人打招呼，然后忽略我，就像我不在那里一样。
There's a woman from the car rental agency with a boss who didn't like women.
汽车租赁公司有一位女士，她的老板不喜欢女人。
He had already been responsible for firing the two other girls in the office.
他已经负责解雇办公室里的另外两个女孩。
I was the last remaining female.
我是最后剩下的女性。
This woman from the phone company who worked with a lot of people younger than her.
这位来自电话公司的女士与很多比她年轻的人一起工作。
There were a few managers I had a problem with.
有几位经理与我有问题。
She was the type that will laugh in your face, but she actually did you in behind your back.
她是那种当着你的面嘲笑你的人，但实际上她却在背后伤害了你。
Talking to Ann about all this, every office is Othello, full of jealousy, and greed, and intrigue.
和安谈论这一切，每个办公室都是奥赛罗，充满嫉妒、贪婪和阴谋。
Kelly's story wasn't surprising to her at all.
凯利的故事对她来说一点也不奇怪。
Surprise me?
让我惊讶吗？
Not much of it, honestly, because I find it very common in the workplace.
老实说，这种情况并不多，因为我发现这在工作场所很常见。
And very oftentimes enough, there is a lot of backstabbing.
很多时候，背后捅刀子的情况也不少。
At some point, I'm guessing, you have worried about investing too much emotional energy in your colleagues, your boss, your work.
我猜想，在某些时候，你可能担心在同事、老板和工作上投入过多的情感能量。
At least we're all doing it.
至少我们都在这么做。
In fact, for Kelly one of the best things about going to Ann about the missing photos is that Ann didn't view her freak out as excessive.
事实上，对于凯利来说，去找安处理丢失的照片的最好的事情之一是，安并不认为她的惊慌太过分了。
Up until that point, I would be calling my mom saying, they've taken them.
在那之前，我会打电话给我妈妈说，他们已经拿走了它们。
They have taken them.
他们已经拿走了它们。
I know they have.
我知道他们有。
And she would be totally freaked out, as all of my friends were.
她会像我所有的朋友一样被吓坏了。
And they were like, let it go.
他们就像，放手吧。
You're going to find them.
你会找到他们的。
And I would be like, no, no. This is bad.
我会说，不，不。这很糟糕。
This is a horrible place.
这是一个可怕的地方。
And I'd be going on these rants.
我会继续这些咆哮。
And my friends and my family were trying to be OK about it.
我的朋友和家人都试图接受这件事。
But she was the first person that was like, oh, yeah, this is bad.
但她是第一个说，哦，是的，这很糟糕的人。
And you're right, and that's unfortunate.
你是对的，这很不幸。
And I said, well, I brought photos.
我说，好吧，我带了照片。
So I wanted to show her the photos, to show her the different places in the office.
所以我想给她看照片，让她看看办公室里的不同地方。
And she, basically, looked at the first one-- which was a Polaroid of all the guys in the office-- and said, oh, that's him.
基本上，她看着第一个——这是办公室里所有男人的宝丽来照片——然后说，哦，那就是他。
He was really mad when you were taking that photo, because he knew that you were coming here.
当你拍那张照片时他真的很生气，因为他知道你要来这里。
The man she pointed to was Kelly's boss.
她指的那个人是凯莉的老板。
He is red in the face in this photo, glaring at me.
照片中他脸色通红，怒视着我。
His veins on his neck are sticking out.
他脖子上的青筋都突出了。
And it looks like he could probably hit me.
而且看起来他可能会打我。
How much actual clairvoyance was involved in this is anyone's guess.
任何人都猜测这其中涉及了多少真正的洞察力。
Ann's clients all swear by her, love her actually.
安的客户都对她发誓，实际上很爱她。
But Ann and her clients all say that a part of what Ann does is confirm what you already know.
但安和她的客户都说，安所做的一部分工作就是确认你已经知道的事情。
Kelly suspected her bosses.
凯莉怀疑她的老板。
Ann told her she was right to.
安告诉她，她这样做是对的。
Armed with this new knowledge, Kelly did absolutely nothing.
有了这些新知识，凯利什么也没做。
She didn't confront her bosses or go over their heads to the head of the company.
她没有与老板对抗，也没有越过他们的头去向公司高层提出要求。
She didn't do anything.
她什么也没做。
She didn't need to.
她不需要。
She felt better.
她感觉好多了。
I felt totally vindicated.
我感觉自己完全被证明是正确的。
I felt released after Ann.
在安之后我感到释放了。
Yeah, I totally felt release, because before I went to her I kept waiting for them to break.
是的，我完全感到了释放，因为在我去找她之前，我一直在等待它们破裂。
I kept thinking that maybe they'd tell me, or that they would admit to it, or that they would just put them on my desk at night, and I would come in in the morning and then they would be there.
我一直在想，也许他们会告诉我，或者他们会承认这一点，或者他们会在晚上把它们放在我的桌子上，然后我早上进来，然后他们就会在那里。
I have had fantasies about that a lot.
我对此曾有过很多幻想。
And then afterward, I didn't have to worry anymore.
后来，我就不用再担心了。
I had no suspicions.
我没有任何怀疑。
I knew that everything that I had thought, she had told me was true.
我知道她告诉我的我所想的一切都是真的。
And I stopped caring.
我不再关心了。
I felt like I could look at them from a different angle.
我觉得我可以从不同的角度来看待他们。
And it wasn't personal anymore.
这不再是个人的了。
It was just more like, wow, that's pretty pathetic.
更像是，哇，这太可悲了。
The lost photos were never found, just like Ann said they wouldn't be.
丢失的照片一直没有找到，就像安说的那样不会找到。
Kelly now works somewhere else.
凯利现在在其他地方工作。
Ann is booked through next summer.
安已预订至明年夏天。
The problem with office politics is it never really makes sense outside the office.
办公室政治的问题在于，它在办公室之外从来没有真正意义。
Your friends and family will never fully understand what it is you hate so much about the girl down the hall.
你的朋友和家人永远不会完全理解你为何如此讨厌走廊那头的女孩。
With Ann, not only does she seem to understand, you don't even have to tell her about it.
对于安来说，她不仅看起来理解，你甚至不需要告诉她。
Starlee Kine is one of the producers of our show.
Starlee Kine 是我们节目的制片人之一。
[MUSIC - "LOVE IS ALL AROUND (MARY TYLER MOORE THEME)" BY JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS]
[音乐 - “爱无处不在（玛丽·泰勒·摩尔主题）”，作者：琼·杰特和黑心乐队]
Act Two, Sheetcakes in the Conference Room, Whiskey After Dark.
第二幕，会议室里的薄饼，天黑后的威士忌。
Americans are, as everybody knows, spending more time on the job, which means more people's social lives are organized around their work lives, and more holidays are celebrated more intensely, and mean more, on the job site.
众所周知，美国人在工作上花费了更多的时间，这意味着更多人的社交生活是围绕工作生活组织的，更多的假期在工作现场庆祝得更激烈，也更有意义。
David Rakoff wrote this next story while we at This American Life took our show on the road a little while back, doing our show before live audiences around the country.
大卫·拉考夫（David Rakoff）写了下一个故事，而我们《This American Life》不久前正在路上进行我们的节目，在全国各地的现场观众面前进行我们的节目。
It is a parable of three such holidays as celebrated on the job.
这是一个关于三个在工作中庆祝的节日的寓言。
Holiday, the first.
假期，第一。
National Secretaries Day.
国家秘书日。
At least, we consoled ourselves, we were assistants, not secretaries.
至少，我们安慰自己，我们是助理，不是秘书。
In the world we were in, the world of New York publishing, these titles meant everything.
在我们所处的世界，纽约出版界，这些书名意味着一切。
It's a loathsome distinction, the almost meaningless difference between field and house slave.
这是一个令人厌恶的区别，田奴隶和家奴之间几乎毫无意义的区别。
After all, we all of us-- secretaries and assistants alike-- had much the same duties.
毕竟，我们所有人——秘书和助理——都有大致相同的职责。
Filing, photocopying, taking dictation, and making reservations for meals we would never get to eat.
归档、复印、听写、预订我们永远吃不到的饭菜。
There was one glaring discrepancy between us and the secretaries, specifically their salaries dwarfed ours.
我们和秘书之间有一个明显的差异，特别是他们的薪水使我们相形见绌。
But our penury came with the promise that we were bound for better things.
但我们的贫困伴随着我们一定会得到更好的东西的承诺。
We would be mentored, promoted, and one day raised to our rightful stations as book editors, our faith in the East Coast meritocracy restored.
我们将得到指导、晋升，并有一天被提升到图书编辑的应有地位，我们对东海岸精英管理的信心恢复了。
Still every April when National Secretaries Day rolled around, many of us took sick days, genuinely nauseous with worry that we might be mistook for them, and there on our assistant's desks would be the asparagus fern and baby's breath-surrounded long stem roses, with the heartfelt note from the boss who just couldn't do it without you.
尽管如此，每年四月国务秘书日来临之际，我们中的许多人都请了病假，担心自己可能会被误认为是国务秘书，而我们助理的桌子上摆着芦笋蕨和满天星环绕的长茎玫瑰，还有老板发自内心的留言，没有你他就无法做到这一点。
Instead of National Secretaries Day, we assistants had our own folk traditions with our own holidays, one of which we celebrated often, almost nightly, in fact.
我们助理没有国务秘书日，而是有自己的民间传统和自己的节日，事实上，我们经常庆祝其中一个节日，几乎每晚都庆祝。
We called it drinking.
我们称之为饮酒。
With disturbing regularity, the end of the workday found us at the old Monkey Bar, the Dorset Bar, the [?
令人不安的是，工作日结束时我们会去老猴子酒吧、多塞特酒吧、[？
Warwick ?] Bar, all of which were attached to serviceable and somewhat down-at-heel hotels.
沃里克？]酒吧，所有这些都附属于服务良好且有些简陋的酒店。
Midtown Manhattan used to be full of just such comfortably shabby establishments, where career waiters with Brilliantined comb overs and shiny-elbowed jackets served marvelously cheap, albeit watery, drinks, along with free snacks.
曼哈顿中城过去到处都是这样舒适的破旧场所，那里的职业服务员戴着光亮的梳子，穿着闪亮的肘部夹克，提供非常便宜的饮料，尽管是淡的，还有免费小吃。
Withered celery sticks, unironic faux Asian Pu Pu platters, pretzel nuggets accompanying a cheese spread of a color that in nature usually signals, I am an alluring, yet highly poisonous tree frog.
枯萎的芹菜杆、讽刺的人造亚洲普普拼盘、椒盐脆饼块，配上奶酪酱，其颜色在自然界中通常表明，我是一只诱人但剧毒的树蛙。
Beware.
提防。
Dinner and forgetfulness, all for $10.
晚餐和健忘，全部花费 10 美元。
Youth is not wasted on the young.
青春不是在年轻人身上浪费的。
It is perpetrated on the young.
它是对年轻人进行的。
Hooch, happily, was one luxury we could afford.
幸运的是，Hooch 是我们买得起的一种奢侈品。
Our drunkenness was twofold.
我们的醉酒是双重的。
First, there was the liquor.
首先是酒。
But there was also the intoxication brought on by the self aggrandizing conviction that we happy few, we cheery booze hounds, were the new incarnations of that most mythic bunch of souses, the Algonquin Round Table.
但也有一种自我夸大的信念带来的陶醉，即我们这些幸福的少数人，我们快乐的酒鬼，是那群最神秘的酒鬼——阿尔冈昆圆桌会议的新化身。
This pipe dream sustained not just us, but I suspect countless other tables of publishing menials all over town.
这个白日梦不仅支撑着我们，而且我怀疑全城无数其他出版业的仆人也支撑着这个梦想。
So desperate were we to assume the mantles of Parker, Benchley, and their ilk, that we weren't going to let some silly thing like a dearth of wit or the complete absence of a body of work on any of our parts deter us.
我们非常渴望继承帕克、本奇利和他们的同类的衣钵，因此我们不会让一些愚蠢的事情（比如缺乏智慧或在我们的任何部分完全缺乏工作）阻止我们。
With enough $4 drinks sloshing through our veins, even the most dunderheaded schoolyard japery qualified as coruscating repartee.
当我们的血管里流淌着足够多的 4 美元饮料时，即使是最愚蠢的校园花言巧语也能成为焕发活力的妙语连珠。
What do you want, a repose might begin, a medal or a chest to pin it on?
你想要什么，可以开始休息，一枚奖章还是一个可以把它钉在上面的箱子？
Oh, touche, we cried merrily, as we clutched our martinis.
哦，塔奇，我们高兴地哭了，手里紧握着马提尼酒。
That represented the high point of the discourse.
这代表了演讲的高潮。
Gradually, our tongues thickened and our moods darkened unpleasantly.
渐渐地，我们的舌头变粗了，心情也变得阴暗起来，令人不快。
As the evenings wore on, a hostile, gin-scented pole fell over everything.
随着夜幕降临，一根充满敌意、带有杜松子酒香味的柱子倒在了一切之上。
And our glittering aphorisms were reduced to the wishful and direct, I hope my boss is dead right now.
我们那些闪闪发光的格言被简化为一厢情愿和直接的，我希望我的老板现在就死了。
Paying the bill, we stumbled out into the street and back to our apartments, where we spent the rest of the night jealously reading the manuscripts of those who actually wrote and didn't just drink about it.
付完帐后，我们跌跌撞撞地走到街上，回到我们的公寓，我们在那里度过了余下的夜晚，嫉妒地阅读那些真正写作的人的手稿，而不仅仅是喝酒。
Rising unrefreshed, we would return to the office, and-- rubbing alcohol and cotton balls in hand-- get down to work swabbing, leaf by leaf, the potted plants in our boss' office, a vain attempt to stop the outbreak of white fly that was going around the floor.
我们起床后精神不振，回到办公室，手里拿着酒精和棉球，开始用棉签擦拭老板办公室里的盆栽植物，一叶一叶地擦拭，徒劳地试图阻止地板上飞舞的白蝇的爆发。
Impressing the higher ups became our constant purpose.
给上级留下深刻的印象成为我们不变的目标。
We spent an inordinate amount of time attaching disproportionate significance to our message taking skills, our collating acumen, no small feat from under a hovering cloud of job hatred.
我们花费了大量的时间，过分重视我们的信息接收技巧、我们的整理敏锐度，在工作仇恨的笼罩下，这可不是一件小事。
How sad to realize, from the vantage point of years later, that the answer to the question that was perpetually on our minds, what do they think of me, was-- they didn't at all.
几年后，从有利的角度来看，我们永远在想的问题——他们对我的看法如何——的答案是——他们根本不知道，这是多么可悲啊。
Realistically, we were the help.
事实上，我们是帮助者。
And it was best not to forget it.
最好不要忘记它。
Holiday, the second.
假期，第二个。
Christmas.
圣诞节。
Those three weeks or so of midtown Manhattan Christmas are an assistant's dream.
曼哈顿市中心的圣诞节大约三周是助理的梦想。
No work gets done.
没有工作完成。
And all is romanticized melancholy.
一切都是浪漫化的忧郁。
It was precisely why so many of us had moved to the city, so that we too might gaze misanthropically at the corporate Christmas tree in the lobby surrounded with gift-wrapped empty boxes that fooled nobody, and in the institutional fluorescent-lit sadness of it all, feel something approaching depth.
正是因为如此，我们中的许多人搬到了这座城市，这样我们也可以愤世嫉俗地凝视大厅里的公司圣诞树，周围是包裹着礼物的空盒子，这些空盒子骗不了任何人，在这一切机构荧光灯照亮的悲伤中，感受到某种接近深度的东西。
The phones idle, we spent our days going to the movies during lunch, returning hours later to troll the halls of the office, foraging through the gift baskets like a ravening pack of voles, subsisting on Carr's water biscuits, individually red waxed thick balls of baby Gouda, butternut toffee, popcorn, smoke house almonds, and fancy fruit preserves eaten directly from the jar.
电话闲着，我们整天在午餐时看电影，几个小时后返回办公室的大厅，像一群贪婪的田鼠一样在礼品篮中搜寻，靠卡尔的水饼干、单独的红色打蜡厚球小豪达、胡桃太妃糖、爆米花、烟熏杏仁和直接从罐子里吃的精美水果蜜饯维持生计。
A diet that had our faces peppered with blackheads and glistening with oily sebum as unto the shining visages of the apostles.
这种饮食让我们的脸上布满了黑头，油腻的皮脂闪闪发光，就像使徒们闪亮的面容一样。
Our bosses were away with their families at country houses having real lives.
我们的老板和家人一起住在乡间别墅里，过着真实的生活。
We wondered how they might greet the sight of the empty food baskets upon their return, such anarchy, such transgression.
我们想知道，当他们回来时看到空空的食品篮，他们会如何看待这种无政府状态、这种越轨行为。
As usual, they never even noticed.
和往常一样，他们甚至都没有注意到。
We on the other hand, could not even conceive of a world wherein we did not know the exact quantity and location of our giant cashews.
另一方面，我们甚至无法想象一个不知道巨型腰果的确切数量和位置的世界。
Holiday, the third.
假期，第三个。
Happy Birthday.
生日快乐。
After any moment of extreme assistant subjugation, say a morning wherein one might innocently open an unsolicited manuscript only to find that someone had mailed the publishing house a jiffy pack full of human feces.
在经历过助手极端征服的任何时刻之后，比如某个早晨，人们可能天真地打开一份未经请求的手稿，却发现有人给出版社邮寄了一大包装满人类粪便的东西。
Or one might be sent to the corner to pick up a cappuccino for an author who had just been given a $1 million book advance, a coffee for which I was not reimbursed.
或者有人可能会被派到角落里为一位刚刚获得 100 万美元图书预付款的作家买一杯卡布奇诺咖啡，而我却没有得到报销。
After such moments, we would make our way to Sheila's cubicle, where we could always be guaranteed clear-eyed advice and cigarettes.
在这样的时刻之后，我们会前往希拉的小隔间，在那里我们总能得到清晰的建议和香烟。
Sheila was our bad girl leader.
希拉是我们的坏女孩领袖。
A poet and writer herself, she despised her job, and didn't care who knew it, smoking openly at her desk and standing on ceremony for no one.
她本身就是一名诗人和作家，她鄙视自己的工作，也不在乎谁知道这一点，她在办公桌前公然抽烟，对任何人都彬彬有礼。
"These would be my pajamas that I slept in last night," she would say, indicating the black long sleeve T-shirt and black workout pants she was wearing.
“这就是我昨晚睡觉时穿的睡衣，”她会说，指着她穿的黑色长袖 T 恤和黑色运动裤。
"And this," she would add, fingering a crusted white smear on the hem of the top, "this would be spilled food.
“还有这个，”她一边补充道，一边用手指抚摸上衣下摆上一处结痂的白色污点，“这可能是洒出来的食物。
Nice." Well, they say, dress for the job you want not the job you have.
不错。”好吧，他们说，穿衣服是为了你想要的工作，而不是你现有的工作。
So of course, it was immediately to Sheila that I went when I received my birthday card.
所以，当然，当我收到生日贺卡时，我立即去了希拉。
It was late November.
那是十一月底。
Opening the envelope, my eyes fell upon it, a reproduction of one of those tinted B movie stills from the 1950s.
打开信封，我的目光落在了它上面，这是一张 20 世纪 50 年代 B 级电影的彩色剧照的复制品。
A woman in a smart worsted business jacket wearing a pair of glasses at which men seldom make passes, and a switchboard operator's headset out of which were shooting tiny lightning bolts, was shown to be thinking, someone needs coffee.
一名身穿漂亮精纺商务夹克、戴着一副男人很少见的眼镜、戴着总机接线员耳机、发射出微小闪电的耳机的女士正在思考，有人需要咖啡。
Above her head, in screaming sci-fi acid yellow type, was the title of this card's purported movie, The Amazing Tale of the Psychic Secretary.
在她的头顶上，用令人尖叫的科幻酸性黄色字体写着这张卡片所谓的电影的标题，《通灵秘书的奇妙故事》。
I slid the card back into the envelope, walked over, and showed it to her.
我把卡片放回信封，走过去给她看。
"Get your coat," she said, her voice businesslike, her face unreadable.
“拿上外套，”她说道，声音很公事公办，脸上的表情难以捉摸。
We went to the [?
我们去了[?
Warwick ?] Bar.
沃里克？] 酒吧。
"Don't talk for a while, just smoke," she said.
“暂时别说话，抽烟吧，”她说。
And then as an afterthought, she added, "But you knew I was going to say that, didn't you, psychic secretary?"
事后她补充道：“但你知道我会这么说，不是吗，通灵秘书？”
Across from us in the darkened booth, a couple sat, a man and a woman.
在我们对面黑暗的摊位里，坐着一对夫妇，一男一女。
They had clearly been there for hours, because the woman's head was lolling about on her neck as she alternately whispered lubriciously or laughed too heartily at her companion's jokes.
他们显然已经在那里呆了好几个小时了，因为那个女人的头耷拉在脖子上，时而低声低语，时而因同伴的笑话而开怀大笑。
We had a clear view under the table, where we could see her rubbing ever higher up his thigh.
我们在桌子底下看得很清楚，可以看到她在他的大腿上摩擦得越来越高。
I knew where this exchange was leading.
我知道这次交流的走向。
Psychic.
精神。
Not long after that evening, I sat in a movie theater packed to the rafters.
那天晚上之后不久，我坐在一家挤满了人的电影院里。
Just before the lights went down, a woman marched up the aisle, looked at me, and asked, "Is that seat taken?" I was nowhere near the end of the row, but trying to be helpful, I asked, "Which seat?" Looking directly into my eyes, she said, "That seat." She pointed.
就在灯光熄灭之前，一位女士沿着过道走过来，看着我，问道：“那个座位有人吗？”我离座位还很远，但为了帮忙，我问道：“哪个座位？”她直视着我的眼睛，说道：“那个座位。”她指着。
She was pointing to the center of my chest, to my very heart.
她指着我的胸口中央，指着我的心脏。
"Well, I'm sitting here," I managed finally.
“好吧，我坐在这里，”我终于说道。
As if I were her college age daughter who had suddenly announced that I was a vegetarian, she shrugged in a kind of suit yourself indulgence of my fantasy of existence, and moved on.
就好像我是她上大学的女儿，突然宣布我是素食主义者一样，她耸了耸肩，表示自己对我存在的幻想的放纵，然后继续前进。
I looked up and down the row for some sort of laughter, some eye rolling commiseration, or just plain corroboration that this had just happened.
我上下打量着这一排人，寻找某种笑声，某种翻白眼的同情，或者只是简单地证实这件事刚刚发生。
But I got no response.
但我没有得到回应。
To this day I can not explain it.
直到今天我也无法解释它。
Was this an emissary sent from on high at that time of year, not to trumpet the birth of the son of God, but to proclaim with heavenly proof my complete and utter insignificance?
难道这是每年这个时候从上天派来的使者，不是为了宣扬上帝之子的诞生，而是为了用天上的证据来宣告我完全的、彻底的微不足道吗？
She's right, I thought.
她是对的，我想。
This seat isn't taken.
这个座位没有人坐。
It was the perfect moment for that time in my life.
这是我一生中最完美的时刻。
I mean that, of course, in the worst way possible.
我的意思是，当然，以最糟糕的方式。
The theater went dark.
剧院一片漆黑。
Up on the screen, the camera zoomed past a huge closeup of the Statue of Liberty, swooping down to find the Staten Island Ferry scudding along the water, transporting our working girl to her office job, where we already knew she would triumph, vanquish the harpy boss, and win the love of the man.
屏幕上，镜头快速掠过自由女神像的巨大特写镜头，俯冲下来发现史泰登岛渡轮在水面上疾驰，将我们的工作女孩运送到她的办公室工作，我们已经知道她会在那里取得胜利，击败鹰身女妖老板，并赢得男人的爱。
Sheila taught me a survival technique for getting through seemingly intolerable situations, interminable lunches, stern lectures on attitude or time management, being trapped by the office bore beside the sheetcake in the conference room, and the like.
希拉教给我一种生存技巧，帮助我度过看似无法忍受的情况、没完没了的午餐、关于态度或时间管理的严厉讲座、被会议室蛋糕旁边的办公室孔困住等等。
Maintaining eye contact, keep your face inscrutable and mask-like with the faintest hint of a smile.
保持眼神交流，让你的脸神秘莫测，像面具一样，带着一丝微笑。
Keep this up as long as you possibly can.
尽可能长时间地保持这个状态。
And just as you feel you're about to crack and take a letter opener and plunge it into someone's neck, fold your hands in your lap, one nestled inside the other, like those of a supplicant in a priory.
当你感觉自己即将打开开信刀并把它插入某人的脖子时，将双手交叉放在膝盖上，一只手依偎在另一只手上，就像修道院里的恳求者一样。
Now with the index finger of your inner hand, write on the palm of the other, very discreetly and undetectably, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, over and over again as you pretend to listen.
现在，用你内侧手的食指，在另一只手的手掌上，非常谨慎地、不易察觉地写下，我恨你，我恨你，我恨你，一遍又一遍地假装在听。
You will find that this brings a spontaneous look of interest and pleased engagement to your countenance.
你会发现这会给你的脸上带来自发的兴趣和愉快的参与。
Continue and repeat as necessary.
根据需要继续并重复。
In the dark of the theater, I write my message, pressing hard into the flesh of my hand.
在黑暗的剧院里，我用力写下我的信息，用力压在我的手上。
Although I don't know who I am writing to, I'm just glad to feel that it hurts.
虽然我不知道我在写给谁，但我只是很高兴感觉到它很痛。
Thank you.
谢谢。
David Rakoff.
大卫·拉考夫.
He put a version of this story into his first book, which is called Fraud.
他把这个故事的一个版本写进了他的第一本书《欺诈》中。
Coming up, Philip Glass, Spike Lee, and Stephen Hawking sit around, have a casual conversation about, you know, whatever.
接下来，菲利普·格拉斯、斯派克·李和史蒂芬·霍金围坐在一起，随意交谈，聊什么话题。
That will be the day.
那一天就会到来。
In a minute, from Public Radio International and Chicago Public Radio, when our program continues.
稍后，国际公共广播电台和芝加哥公共广播电台将继续我们的节目。
It's This American Life.
这就是美国生活。
I'm Ira Glass.
我是艾拉·格拉斯。
Each week on our program, of course, we choose some theme and bring you a variety of different kinds of stories on that theme.
当然，每周我们的节目都会选择一些主题，并为您带来有关该主题的各种不同类型的故事。
Today's program, Office Politics.
今天的节目是办公室政治。
High drama in our nation's workplaces.
我们国家的工作场所充满戏剧性。
We have arrived at Act Three.
我们已经到了第三幕。
Act Three, When the Job to Get You off the Streets is on the Streets.
第三幕，当让你离开街头的工作就在街头时。
In New York City, at Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street in Greenwich Village, pretty much any day you will see tables on the sidewalks, manned by scruffy-looking men.
在纽约市格林威治村的第六大道和第八街，几乎每天你都会看到人行道上摆着桌子，桌子上坐着一群衣衫褴褛的男人。
This extends for two blocks.
这延伸了两个街区。
What they are selling on the tables are magazines and books.
他们在桌子上卖的是杂志和书籍。
Most of these have been pulled from the trash, found in dumpsters.
其中大部分是从垃圾箱中发现的垃圾中取出的。
Julie Snyder reports on the politics of this particular business.
朱莉·斯奈德报道了这一特定行业的政治情况。
After spending a couple of days on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street, what strikes me is not how different street vending is from other businesses, but how similar.
在第六大道和第八街的拐角处呆了几天后，令我震惊的不是街头贩卖与其他商店有多么不同，而是有多么相似。
As if the rules of business are so deeply encoded in us that as soon as anyone starts to sell anything, in any setting, the rules and hierarchies of a company start to gel around them, even if what they're doing is selling other people's trash.
就好像商业规则深深地烙印在我们心中，一旦任何人在任何环境下开始销售任何东西，公司的规则和等级制度就会开始围绕他们，即使他们正在做的是卖别人的垃圾。
On the corner, you've got your entry levels, and you've got the people who have worked and clawed their way to the top.
在角落里，你有入门级的人，也有那些努力工作并爬上顶峰的人。
That's more or less what Ishmael Walker did.
伊斯梅尔·沃克或多或少就是这么做的。
When I visit, he has the best spot on the block, right on the corner, in front of the Barnes & Noble.
当我去拜访时，他占据了街区最好的位置，就在拐角处，巴诺书店前面。
And what got him there was simple ambition.
让他到达这里的原因很简单。
At one time, I was down the block.
有一次，我在街区的另一端。
I was just sitting out.
我只是坐在外面。
I said, damn all the money is up there and everybody up there.
我说，该死，所有的钱都在那里，所有人都在那里。
Because see, that bookstore, people go and buy books, right?
因为你看，那个书店，人们去买书，对吗？
And I've got books on the table.
我的桌子上还有书。
I've got magazines.
我有杂志。
I might just got what they want.
我可能刚刚得到了他们想要的东西。
There were other reasons Ishmael wanted the corner.
以实玛利想要这个角球还有其他原因。
Right across is Gray's Papaya, a hot dog restaurant with plate glass windows that looks directly onto the corner.
对面就是 Gray's Papaya，一家热狗餐厅，有平板玻璃窗，可以直接看到街角。
When it rains, he can sit inside and eat and still keep an eye on his stuff.
下雨的时候，他可以坐在里面吃饭，同时还能留意自己的东西。
Also, there's a small alcove that is right in front of Ishmael's table, where he keeps a chair and can relax or nap during the day.
此外，以实玛利桌子前面有一个小凹室，他在那里放了一把椅子，可以在白天放松或小睡。
To understand how you rise to the best space on the block, or how you get demoted to the worst, consider Ron's story.
要了解你如何晋升到该街区最好的位置，或如何降级到最差的位置，请考虑罗恩的故事。
I told you one time I had this whole block from the light post to the light post.
我告诉过你一次，我拥有从灯柱到灯柱的整个街区。
This was when I first came out here.
这是我第一次来到这里的时候。
Ron is at the very end of the blocks in what is, arguably, the worst location.
罗恩位于街区的最末端，可以说是最糟糕的地方。
Years ago, before Ishmael made his move to the top, Ron controlled the entire block, including the area where Ishmael is now.
几年前，在以实玛利登上顶峰之前，罗恩控制了整个街区，包括现在以实玛利所在的区域。
Now how I got control of this whole block was that I was living here.
现在我如何控制整个街区是因为我住在这里。
I was living right here on the sidewalk.
我就住在人行道上。
There was no way anybody was going to get here before me.
不可能有人比我先到达这里。
You understand?
你明白吗？
And I used to sleep over there.
我以前就睡在那里。
Me and a few other guys used to sleep over there.
我和其他几个人过去常常睡在那里。
I packed my stuff up in a dumpster, a post office thing.
我把东西装进了垃圾箱，邮局里的东西。
And I would push it over there.
我会把它推到那里。
You understand, I could be up 24 four hours if I wanted.
你知道的，如果我愿意的话，我可以二十四小时工作。
More than half the guys on Sixth Avenue are homeless.
第六大道上一半以上的人无家可归。
So it's easier for them to stay with their stuff and keep their spaces on the street.
因此，他们可以更轻松地保留自己的物品并在街道上保留自己的空间。
Eventually, Ron moved in with his aunt in Harlem.
最终，罗恩搬到哈莱姆区和他的姨妈住在一起。
He lost control of the block, and now he doesn't get as much business as Ishmael does.
他失去了对街区的控制，现在他得到的生意不如以实玛利那么多。
He's away from all the action.
他远离所有的活动。
But it's just not worth it to Ron anymore.
但这对罗恩来说已经不值得了。
Because I'm not going to stay out here all night to hold down a spot.
因为我不会为了保住一个位置而整夜待在这里。
I have got a place to live now.
我现在有地方住了。
You understand?
你明白吗？
I'm going to pack my stuff up at night and go home.
晚上我要收拾东西回家。
The way Ron started here is the way all the guys start.
罗恩在这里开始的方式就是所有其他人开始的方式。
He was a panhandler.
他是一个乞丐。
But you're lucky if you get any of the guys to admit that, because for the most part, the vendors are embarrassed about their panhandling past.
但如果你让其中任何一个人承认这一点，那你就很幸运了，因为在大多数情况下，小贩们都对他们过去的乞讨行为感到尴尬。
The panhandlers, meanwhile, look down on the vendors, saying they have too much pride to sell someone else's trash.
与此同时，乞讨者看不起小贩，说他们太骄傲了，不会卖别人的垃圾。
Ron remembers panhandling as just being humiliating.
罗恩记得乞讨只是一种羞辱。
I was panhandling over there on Ninth Street.
我当时正在第九街乞讨。
And I remember one day I walked up to my brother-in-law.
我记得有一天我走向我姐夫。
I didn't walk up to him.
我没有走到他身边。
I was panhandling-- my back was turned.
我正在乞讨——我背对着他。
And he walked up.
他走上前去。
And I turned around and said, spare some change.
我转身说，给点零钱吧。
And it was my brother-in-law.
那是我的姐夫。
And he looked at me like-- he said, I have got a wife and kids to support.
他看着我，就像——他说，我要养活妻子和孩子。
And he kept going.
他继续前进。
And one time I was really embarrassed.
有一次我真的很尴尬。
This time, I was working at this job as a time keeper.
这次，我从事的是计时员的工作。
And I was getting good money.
我赚了很多钱。
And I ended up leaving that job, because I'm out drinking.
我最终辞掉了那份工作，因为我出去喝酒了。
One of the coworkers that I didn't really get along with that good was a girl.
我和我相处得不太好的同事之一是一位女孩。
And she had a boyfriend.
她有一个男朋友。
Her boyfriend was a New Jersey cop.
她的男朋友是新泽西州的一名警察。
And I remember one day I was panhandling uptown.
我记得有一天我在住宅区乞讨。
And she walked up, and she looked at me like she was real startled.
她走上前，看着我，好像真的很惊讶。
And she was with the guy.
而且她和那个男人在一起。
And I remember I was real being embarrassed that time.
我记得那次我真的很尴尬。
So I'm actually glad that I was able to start vending, which is more respectable.
所以我真的很高兴我能够开始自动售货，这更受人尊敬。
When you spend time on the corner, what it looks like is there will be 20 or 30 guys all around the tables.
当你在角落里消磨时间时，看起来桌子周围会有 20 或 30 个人。
And it seems like they're just hanging out do nothing.
而且看起来他们只是闲逛什么也不做。
But it turns out they all have different and distinct jobs, with different responsibilities and pay scales.
但事实证明，他们都有不同的、不同的工作，有不同的职责和薪资标准。
There are place holders, who camp out overnight on the sidewalk, holding a space that they sell to vendors in the morning.
有些占位者在人行道上过夜，持有一个空间，并在早上卖给小贩。
That usually pays around $20 to $30.
通常支付大约 20 至 30 美元。
Guys called storage providers have places either in their apartments, or under the subway tracks, or in empty store rooms, where they charge $7 to $10 for the vendors to keep their tables and crates of magazines during the night.
那些被称为存储供应商的人要么在他们的公寓里，要么在地铁轨道下，要么在空的储藏室里，他们向供应商收取 7 到 10 美元的费用，让他们在夜间保留他们的桌子和杂志箱。
The movers help the vendors haul their stuff on and off the sidewalks.
搬运工帮助商贩在人行道上搬运货物。
They generally make $5 to $10 a move.
他们每次搬家通常赚 5 到 10 美元。
If you were to show up on Sixth Avenue tomorrow to start in the business, even with a high school or college degree, even with other job experience, you'd have to work your way up, the same as anyone, before you would make vendor.
如果你明天出现在第六大道开始做生意，即使你有高中或大学学位，即使有其他工作经验，你也必须像任何人一样，努力向上，然后才能成为供应商。
When sociologist Mitch Deneier came to the block to write about the vendors, he was first put to work getting coffee and helping out in little ways for months before getting his own table.
当社会学家米奇·德尼尔 (Mitch Deneiier) 来到这个街区写有关摊贩的文章时，他首先要花几个月的时间去喝咖啡并提供一些小帮助，然后才得到自己的桌子。
He ended up spending years with the vendors.
他最终与供应商一起度过了数年。
Not anybody can come out here and set up a table.
不是任何人都可以出来摆桌子的。
You have to work your way through the system, because there's only a certain number of legal spots on the street.
你必须按照系统的要求进行操作，因为街上只有一定数量的合法停车位。
The city regulates how many spots there can be.
该市规定了可以有多少个停车位。
And so some guys show up in the morning, and their whole job is just to be a mover.
所以有些人早上就来了，他们的全部工作就是搬家。
And in fact, that's how Conrad got started out here.
事实上，康拉德就是这样开始在这里的。
He was originally just a mover.
他原本只是一个搬运工。
And now he moved up to getting his own table.
现在他开始拥有自己的桌子了。
And there are many people who start out as table watchers, watching a table all night while someone else goes to sleep, or watching a table while people go to the bathroom.
有很多人一开始就是守桌人，在别人睡觉时整夜守着桌子，或者在人们上厕所时守着桌子。
And they may wind up having their own table one day.
有一天他们可能会拥有自己的桌子。
Mitch introduced me to everyone on Sixth Avenue and explained that excessive drug use is pretty much what brought all of the guys out here.
米奇把我介绍给第六大道上的每个人，并解释说，过度吸毒几乎是所有这些人来到这里的原因。
Most times, a person's position on the sidewalk correlates to their level of addiction.
大多数时候，一个人在人行道上的位置与其成瘾程度相关。
If you smoke a lot of crack and aren't too trustworthy, a place holder is about the best job you can get.
如果你吸了很多可卡因并且不太值得信赖，那么占位者可能是你能找到的最好的工作。
It you're pretty clean, you're probably a regular table watcher or a vendor.
如果你很干净，你可能是一个经常看桌的人或一个小贩。
So there are cliques on the sidewalks and mutual snobberies between the panhandlers and the vendors.
因此，人行道上存在拉帮结派，乞讨者和商贩之间也存在相互势利。
But like in any workplace, there are people who sidestep those trivialities, ignore the politics.
但就像在任何工作场所一样，有些人会回避这些琐事，忽视政治。
B.
B.
A.
A.
is one of those people.
就是其中之一。
[UNINTELLIGIBLE] I told you that lady here, all right?
[无法理解] 我告诉过你这里的那位女士了，好吗？
Some people say the B.
有人说B。
A.
A.
stands for Bad Attitude.
代表不良态度。
But B.
但是B.
A.
A.
prefers Business Administrator.
更喜欢业务管理员。
It's an apt title for him because he's sort of a floater on Sixth Avenue, one of the few guys who jumps from job to job during the day.
这对他来说是一个恰当的头衔，因为他有点像第六大道上的流动者，是少数几个在白天从一个工作跳到另一个工作的人之一。
On this afternoon, B.
今天下午，B.
A.
A.
is table watching.
正在看表。
He is also place holding a space next to him for a vendor named Joe, an elderly white guy who sells rare and out of print books, but only comes to the sidewalks on weekends.
他还在旁边为一位名叫乔的小贩预留了一个空间，乔是一位白人老人，出售稀有和绝版书籍，但只在周末来到人行道上。
And then on top of all of that, at 4:00 in the afternoon most days, he goes down to the PATH train station to panhandle, though today he isn't going.
最重要的是，大多数时候他都会在下午 4:00 去 PATH 火车站乞讨，尽管今天他不会去。
I've got somebody down there working for me.
我下面有人为我工作。
At the train?
在火车上？
B.
B.
A.
A.
Yeah, the PATH train station.
是的，PATH火车站。
You pay somebody to go down there for you if you can't go, and then--
如果你不能去，你就花钱请人帮你去那里，然后——
No, they pay me when they come out.
不，他们出来后就付钱给我。
They pay me.
他们付钱给我。
Yeah, they take my time.
是的，他们需要我的时间。
Do you know what I'm saying?
你知道我在说什么吗？
My time is from 4:00 to 6:00.
我的时间是4:00到6:00。
So if they want to get on my time, I tell them, give me half.
因此，如果他们想占用我的时间，我告诉他们，给我一半的时间。
If you want to got down there from 4:00 to 6:00, give me half.
如果你想在 4:00 到 6:00 到那儿，给我一半。
So right now you're making money down at the train station, and then you're also making money right now on the table.
所以现在你在火车站赚钱，然后你现在也在桌子上赚钱。
Of course.
当然。
That's how I go.
我就是这样走的。
Julie Snyder And then you'll also make money tonight by holding the space for Joe for tomorrow.
朱莉·斯奈德：今晚你也可以通过为乔保留明天的空间来赚钱。
Got it.
知道了。
Julie Snyder What would you do if somebody just went down there from 4:00 to 6:00 and started panhandling, and you didn't know them, and they didn't pay you?
Julie Snyder 如果有人从 4:00 到 6:00 去那里乞讨，而你不认识他们，而且他们也不付钱给你，你会怎么做？
Isn't that possible?
这不可能吗？
No, no, no. They've got to go.
不，不，不。他们得走了。
Because I go at 3:30, and I check out my spot.
因为我是3点30分去的，然后我就去看看我的位置。
Do you know what I'm saying?
你知道我在说什么吗？
I got out at 3:30.
我是3点30分出来的。
I go make sure everything is clear.
我去确保一切都清楚。
I go set myself up, my crate down there, get my cup ready.
我去把自己收拾好，把我的板条箱放在那里，准备好我的杯子。
I change my clothes to look like a bum.
我把衣服换成流浪汉的样子。
Wait.
等待。
At the risk of making homeless advocates cringe, I want to make sure you caught that.
冒着让无家可归者拥护者感到畏缩的风险，我想确保你明白这一点。
Right now, B.
现在，B.
A.
A.
is wearing a polo shirt from the Gap, khakis, and Adidas.
穿着Gap、卡其裤和阿迪达斯的polo衫。
But when he goes down to panhandle, he says, he changes his clothes to look like a bum.
但他说，当他去乞讨时，他会把衣服换成流浪汉的样子。
You change your clothes to look like-- because right now you look really nice.
你把衣服换成这样——因为现在你看起来非常漂亮。
That's why I say I have to go change and everything.
这就是为什么我说我必须改变一切。
When you have to go down and go panhandling, then what do you wear?
当你必须下去乞讨时，你穿什么？
I put on my overalls or something.
我穿上工作服什么的。
I change my sneakers out.
我换掉运动鞋。
You know, just [UNINTELLIGIBLE] or my do rag or something like that.
你知道，只是[难以理解]或我的破布之类的东西。
You know, I just sit down and just look homeless.
你知道，我只是坐下来，看起来无家可归。
$60 to $80.
60 美元到 80 美元。
Ishmael Walker Hey Shorty, where you get those babies from?
伊斯梅尔·沃克 嘿矮子，你从哪里弄来这些婴儿的？
What's that?
那是什么？
Magazines?
杂志？
At one point on the corner, Ishmael's friend, Shorty, pulls up on the sidewalk, and gets out of a cab carrying several cardboard boxes.
在街角的某个地方，以实玛利的朋友肖蒂把车停在人行道上，从一辆出租车里下来，手里拿着几个纸箱。
Someone had cleaned out their apartment and given Shorty a bunch of old books.
有人清理了他们的公寓，并给了矮个子一堆旧书。
The guys gather around and evaluate the books.
这些人聚集在一起评估这些书。
Most of them seem pretty old, with titles nobody has ever heard of.
他们中的大多数看起来都很老了，没有人听说过他们的头衔。
But there are a few known sellers.
但有一些知名卖家。
Oh, look over here.
哦，看这里。
Book Vendor 2 We used [UNINTELLIGIBLE] The Baby-sitters Club.
图书供应商 2 我们使用了[无法理解]保姆俱乐部。
The Baby-sitters Club.
保姆俱乐部。
These will sell, bro.
这些会卖的，兄弟。
[UNINTELLIGIBLE] A person that don't sell books or magazines don't know nothing about it.
[无法理解] 不卖书或杂志的人对此一无所知。
Some of these guys have known each other for over twenty years.
其中一些人已经认识二十多年了。
In the mid '80s, they lived together in Penn Station, before the city cleaned it up.
八十年代中期，在城市清理宾夕法尼亚车站之前，他们一起住在宾夕法尼亚车站。
After time in jail and treatment programs, the guys regrouped on Sixth Avenue.
经过一段时间的监狱和治疗计划后，这些人在第六大道重新聚集。
And they are close in a way that makes it nice to hang out with them.
他们之间的关系很亲密，所以和他们一起出去玩很愉快。
They joke around.
他们开玩笑。
They get into little arguments that last a day or two and then blow over.
他们会发生小争执，持续一两天，然后就平息了。
How much [UNINTELLIGIBLE]?
多少钱[无法理解]？
Ishmael Walker I'll give you $1 a piece on them.
伊斯梅尔·沃克（Ishmael Walker） 我会给你每件 1 美元。
That's a good deal for those.
这对那些人来说是一件好事。
Starting around 4:00 in the afternoon, the sidewalks start getting busier, the music gets turned up on the stereos, and what's known as the power hour begins.
从下午 4:00 左右开始，人行道开始变得更加繁忙，音响里开始播放音乐，所谓的电力时段开始了。
Each table has about 150 to 200 magazines laid out.
每张桌子上大约摆放着150到200本杂志。
The sellers, Vogue, Vibe, GQ, Martha Stewart Living, Architectural Digest.
卖家、《Vogue》、《Vibe》、《GQ》、《Martha Stewart Living》、《建筑文摘》。
There are foreign fashion magazines, like Italian Vogue and the occasional specialty order.
有国外的时尚杂志，比如意大利版《Vogue》，偶尔也会有特色订单。
I have a girl right now, she wants Drew Barrymore Playboy issue.
我现在有一个女孩，她想要德鲁·巴里摩尔《花花公子》杂志。
She said on the internet they're asking $60 for it.
她在网上说他们要价 60 美元。
I've had that book many times.
我已经看过那本书很多次了。
I'm waiting on it now.
我现在正在等它。
I'm going to just charge her $3 or $5.
我只会向她收取 3 美元或 5 美元的费用。
The losers, any weekly magazine.
失败者，任何周刊。
The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek.
《纽约客》、《体育画报》、《新闻周刊》。
Neighbors will often donate stacks of weekly magazines, like People, to the vendors.
邻居们经常会向商贩捐赠成堆的周刊，比如《人物》杂志。
The vendors will take them just to be polite and later quietly throw them away.
商贩只是出于礼貌而收下它们，然后悄悄地把它们扔掉。
It seems that smut sells the best.
看来smut卖得最好。
And there's a surprisingly large stock of gay porn that everyone is completely matter of fact about.
而且同性恋色情内容的数量惊人地大，每个人都完全关注这些内容。
In fact, it's all pretty relaxed, no hard sell, except for Ishmael, sitting in his premium spot at the top of the block.
事实上，这一切都很轻松，没有强行推销，除了以实玛利，他坐在街区顶部的优质位置。
At one point, a cab driver, who Ishmael has apparently dealt with before, pulls up next to the tables and asks Ishmael if he has any computer books or software.
有一次，一名出租车司机（显然以前与以实玛利打过交道）将车停在桌子旁边，询问以实玛利是否有任何计算机书籍或软件。
Yeah, right there.
是的，就在那里。
The whole section, the whole foot.
整个部分，整个脚。
Come on out of your cab.
从你的出租车里出来吧。
You've got to get up out of the cab and come on by the table, bro.
你必须从出租车里站起来，到桌子旁边来，兄弟。
The cab driver is reluctant to leave his cab parked, sitting in the middle of a lane of traffic on the side of a busy New York City street.
出租车司机不愿将出租车停在纽约市一条繁忙街道一侧的车道中间。
You've got to come on out.
你必须出来。
You've got to get up on it.
你必须站起来。
We aren't going to have that accident no more, like we did last time.
我们不会再发生像上次那样的事故了。
I don't want a ticket.
我不要票。
Ishmael Walker Don't worry about the ticket.
伊斯梅尔·沃克（Ishmael Walker） 别担心票的问题。
I want you to see the books, man.
我想让你看看书，伙计。
[UNINTELLIGIBLE] Julie Snyder Ishmael actually gets the cab driver to come out of his cab and to the table.
[无法理解]朱莉·斯奈德·伊斯梅尔实际上让出租车司机从出租车里出来，来到餐桌旁。
He sells the computers book for $10.
他以 10 美元的价格出售计算机书。
Now I don't understand how you're going to see like that.
现在我不明白你会怎么看。
You have to go around the table--
你必须绕过桌子——
What got Ishmael to the top of the block is pretty much what get someone to the top of any business.
让以实玛利登上顶峰的东西，几乎也能让某人登上任何企业的顶峰。
He just wanted it more.
他只是想要更多。
When he first started on the sidewalk, there was a guy named Scotty sitting at the corner by the bookstore.
当他第一次走上人行道时，书店旁边的拐角处坐着一个名叫斯科蒂的人。
So Ishmael made a plan.
于是以实玛利制定了一个计划。
He says he stayed inside, and rested up for a week, and got ready to make his move on Scotty.
他说他呆在里面休息了一个星期，准备对斯科蒂采取行动。
So the day comes, he ain't come yet.
那么这一天到了，他还没来。
So my tables are in there.
所以我的桌子就在那里。
Next minute, here he comes.
下一分钟，他就来了。
Oh, boy.
哦，男孩。
I fought for three mornings, three days straight, physically fighting, tables in the street, comic books in the street, books in the street.
我连续三天打了三个早上，身体上打架，桌子在街上，漫画书在街上，书籍在街上。
You kicked his in the street?
你在街上踢了他？
Ishmael Walker He kicked mine, and I kicked his.
伊斯梅尔·沃克 他踢了我的，我也踢了他的。
For three days straight, 8 o'clock till about 11 o'clock in the morning.
连续三天，早上八点到十一点左右。
When Mitch first introduced me to Ishmael, Mitch said he'd met few people in his life with the determination that Ishmael has.
当米奇第一次把我介绍给以实玛利时，米奇说他一生中很少遇到像以实玛利这样有决心的人。
And I know it's weird that the path to triumph would be kicking the ass of your opponent for three hours every morning.
我知道，胜利之路就是每天早上踢对手的屁股三个小时，这很奇怪。
But if Coke and Pepsi could do the same thing, don't you think they would?
但如果可口可乐和百事可乐可以做同样的事情，你认为他们不会吗？
Ishmael, I have seen you in 30 below zero weather, at 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock in the morning, I've seen you preserving this space out here when everybody else was gone.
以实玛利，我见过你在零下 30 度的天气里，凌晨 3 点、4 点，我见过你在其他人都走了的时候保留了这个空间。
That's right.
这是正确的。
Because it's like this.
因为事情就是这样的。
They say the ghosts come out at night.
他们说鬼魂在晚上出来。
And if you're not there, believe me, somebody is waiting to slip up in there.
如果你不在那里，相信我，有人正等着溜进去。
On a good day, when the weather's nice and lots of people are out, Ishmael makes about $150.
天气好的时候，天气好的时候，很多人都在外出，以实玛利的收入约为 150 美元。
But he works seven days a week.
但他每周工作 7 天。
And a lot of days it rains.
而且很多天都下雨。
Julie Snyder is the senior producer of our show.
朱莉·斯奈德是我们节目的高级制片人。
Mitch Deneier's book, documenting several years in the lives of the vendors, is called Sidewalk.
米奇·德尼尔的书《人行道》记录了几年来摊贩的生活。
Our thanks to him for acting as our guide for this story.
我们感谢他担任我们这个故事的向导。
Thanks today also to Monica Hall and Chris Neary.
今天还要感谢莫妮卡·霍尔和克里斯·尼尔里。
This American Life is distributed by Public Radio International.
《美国生活》由国际公共广播电台发行。
WBEZ management oversight by Torey Malatia.
WBEZ 管理由 Torey Malatia 监督。
When Spike Lee walks in on Torey, me, Philip Glass, and Stephen Hawking, this is what happens.
当斯派克·李走进托里、我、菲利普·格拉斯和史蒂芬·霍金时，就会发生这样的事情。
He would walk in and say hello to the other four, and just ignore me like I wasn't there.
他会走进去向其他四个人打招呼，然后忽略我，就像我不在那里一样。
I'm Ira Glass, back next week with more stories of This American Life.
我是艾拉·格拉斯，下周回来，带来更多《美国生活》的故事。
This American Life is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago and delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange.
《This American Life》与 WBEZ Chicago 合作制作，并由 PRX 公共广播电台传送到各电台。