298: Getting and Spending - 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 #298 | September 8, 2006 298: Getting and Spending 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 298 集 | 2006 年 9 月 8 日 298：获取和消费 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 Ira Glass Marti was 22, just out of college, working as a waitress, living in LA, with vague ideas of getting into the film business, but no idea of how to do that, when a customer hooked her up with a job in the movie business, on the kind of fringes of the movie business actually, at a product placement company.
序言 艾拉·格拉斯·马蒂当时 22 岁，刚刚大学毕业，住在洛杉矶，做一名女服务员，模糊地想进入电影行业，但不知道如何去做，当一位客户为她找到了一份电影行业的工作，实际上是电影行业的边缘，在一家植入式广告公司。
These are the people who help companies get their name brand products into Hollywood films.
这些人帮助公司将其名牌产品打入好莱坞电影。
And this was a job I didn't even know existed.
这是一份我什至不知道存在的工作。
But our big client was Budweiser.
但我们的大客户是百威啤酒。
And I think one of the reasons I was really impressed with this job was that they took me to the breakroom, and they had a giant refrigerator shaped like a Budweiser can.
我认为这份工作给我留下深刻印象的原因之一是他们带我去了休息室，他们有一个巨大的冰箱，形状像百威啤酒罐。
And I just thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.
我只是觉得这是我见过的最酷的事情。
You were 22.
那年你22岁。
Marti Noxon I was 22.
马蒂·诺克森当时 22 岁。
It was full of beer.
里面装满了啤酒。
It was the kind of job where you could drink as much beer as you wanted on the job.
这是一种你可以在工作中想喝多少啤酒就喝多少啤酒的工作。
It was the kind of job where somebody regularly injected fish oil, which stank, into the upholstered chair of a boss that everybody hated.
在这种工作中，有人经常将鱼油注射到每个人都讨厌的老板的软垫椅子上，鱼油有臭味。
Marti had never actually worked in an office before, and she just thought, well, I guess this is what all office jobs are like.
马蒂以前从未真正在办公室工作过，她只是想，好吧，我想这就是所有办公室工作的样子。
And she got to read scripts of movies before they were made, which was exciting, to look for places where characters could be drinking Budweiser or using other clients' products.
她在电影制作前阅读了电影剧本，寻找角色可以喝百威啤酒或使用其他客户产品的地方，这很令人兴奋。
And things went along like that for a while.
事情就这样持续了一段时间。
And one day, the office manager tells Marti to wear a dress the next day and show up on time because auditors from Budweiser were going to be coming to the office.
有一天，办公室经理告诉马蒂第二天要穿裙子准时出现，因为百威啤酒的审核员要来办公室。
And I showed up the next morning, and there's this guy in a suit sitting in my office at my desk.
第二天早上我出现了，这个穿着西装的家伙坐在我办公室的办公桌前。
I think he introduced himself.
我想他做了自我介绍。
And he said, I'm going to pretend to be your boss today.
他说，今天我要假装是你的老板。
And you're my secretary.
而你是我的秘书。
I guess at that point it was explained to me that my boss-- the big boss, the guy I never saw-- had been cooking the books and that, according to the books, there were 15 more employees over in our office than there actually were.
我想当时有人向我解释说，我的老板——那个我从未见过的大老板——一直在做假账，而且根据账本，我们办公室的员工比实际人数多了 15 名。
So somebody's solution to this was to hire a bunch of actors to come in and play the employees who were supposed to be working there, including the person who was supposed to be running the quote unquote, "script department," who was someone who was not me, who was paid a whole lot more than me.
所以有人解决这个问题的办法是雇一群演员来扮演应该在那里工作的员工，包括应该负责运行引文的人，“剧本部门”，他不是我，他的薪水比我高得多。
In fact, Marti was told, she was doing, for $200 a week and still keeping her waitressing job, the work of three people, an entire department, that her company was actually billing Anheuser-Busch for.
事实上，马蒂被告知，她正在做，每周 200 美元，但仍然保留着她的服务员工作，三个人的工作，整个部门，她的公司实际上向安海斯-布希公司收取费用。
And, 22 years old, Marti never thought, OK, that's it, I'm walking.
22 岁的 Marti 从来没有想过，好吧，就这样，我在走路。
In fact, she was all, let's go, best day of work ever.
事实上，她是有史以来最好的工作一天。
Now we're comrades.
现在我们是同志了。
We're in on a scheme together.
我们一起制定一个计划。
So I'm like, hey, I'm Marti.
所以我想，嘿，我是马蒂。
And he introduced himself.
他做了自我介绍。
And I believe his name was Gary.
我相信他的名字叫加里。
And Gary was like, yeah, usually my gig is I'm a regular extra on All My Children.
加里说，是的，通常我的演出是《我的孩子》中的常规临时演员。
And I was really impressed.
我真的很感动。
I just thought, wow, this guy is on TV.
我只是想，哇，这家伙上电视了。
And he's all, so tell me how things really work here, and what should I say when they come in, and how does this computer work?
他就是全部，所以告诉我这里的事情到底是如何运作的，当他们进来时我应该说些什么，以及这台计算机是如何工作的？
And it was like we were getting ready to do a little play.
就好像我们正准备玩一场小戏。
Yeah.
是的。
Oh yeah, definitely.
哦，是的，当然。
Well, they were actors.
嗯，他们是演员。
They were a day player on Days of Our Lives.
他们是《我们的日子》的日间演员。
It was really impressive to me.
这真的给我留下了深刻的印象。
I couldn't believe they'd hired the caliber of performers.
我简直不敢相信他们聘请了如此优秀的表演者。
I thought, wow, I can't believe they got people-- There were a bunch, one of whom was the cue card guy usually for Wheel of Fortune.
我想，哇，我不敢相信他们有一群人，其中一个通常是命运之轮的提示卡人。
They were on real shows.
他们参加了真人秀。
Marti Noxon They were on real shows.
马蒂·诺克森 他们参加了真人秀。
They were on television, and they were here in our offices.
他们出现在电视上，也出现在我们的办公室里。
And then the office manager gives the word, the auditors have arrived.
然后办公室经理发话，审计员已经到了。
So yeah, she's all, they're here, they're here.
所以是的，她就在这里，他们都在这里。
And everybody started looking efficient.
每个人都开始显得高效。
And at that point, people start bustling around, boxes are being carried from place to place.
那时，人们开始忙碌起来，箱子被从一个地方搬到另一个地方。
Yeah, in my mind, it was like we're busy, happy employees.
是的，在我看来，我们就像是忙碌而快乐的员工。
And everybody got busy because they were all those guys in the stockroom.
每个人都很忙，因为他们都是库房里的人。
And Gary is typing.
加里正在打字。
God knows what he was typing.
天知道他在打字什么。
We're trying to look busy.
我们努力让自己看起来很忙。
And I remember they walked past us first.
我记得他们先从我们身边走过。
And your heart kind of skips, like, oh, they're coming to see us.
你的心会跳动，就像，哦，他们要来看我们。
And so all of a sudden, there's like four or five people standing around the door of this little office--
突然之间，这个小办公室的门口站了四五个人——
These are the people from Anheuser-Busch.
这些人来自安海斯-布希公司。
--kind of looking at us like we were an exhibit, the story department exhibit.
——看着我们就像我们是一个展览，故事部门的展览。
And the guy who was pretending to be my boss was telling them about our projects.
那个假装是我老板的人正在告诉他们我们的项目。
But he kept stopping because he'd sort of forget.
但他一直停下来，因为他有点忘记了。
And I would, of course, couldn't help myself.
当然，我会情不自禁。
I'd start jumping in and going, bu-- ah-- ge-- and no, that's a Spike Lee project and stuff like that.
我会开始跳进去，但是——啊——呃——不，那是斯派克·李的项目之类的。
And I remember he was talking and fumbling his way through some explanation and looking at all these guys-- there was probably two or three men and this one woman-- and this one woman was looking at me.
我记得他一边说话，一边摸索着解释，看着所有这些人——可能有两三个男人和一个女人——而这个女人正在看着我。
We kind of locked eyes.
我们目光锁定。
And I knew that she knew.
我知道她知道。
It was this look like, I'm very disappointed in you.
就是这个样子，我对你很失望。
This is pitiful.
这很可怜。
And yeah.
是的。
The auditors left without saying anything at all.
审计员什么也没说就离开了。
But within weeks, the company was coming apart.
但几周之内，该公司就分崩离析了。
Paychecks were bouncing.
薪水不断上涨。
But what's so crazy about the whole scheme is that it's the sort of thing that somebody would do in a sitcom.
但整个计划的疯狂之处在于，这是有人在情景喜剧中会做的事情。
Do you know what I mean?
你知道我的意思吗？
Oh, I know what we'll do.
哦，我知道我们要做什么。
We'll hire actors to pretend to be the office workers.
我们将聘请演员假装是办公室职员。
No, it was like somebody had seen The Sting and thought, genius, I've got the plan.
不，就像有人看过《The Sting》然后想，天才，我已经有了计划。
I'm surprised that they didn't just wheel the walls away of the whole place afterwards because it was just like that.
我很惊讶他们并没有把整个地方的墙壁推开，因为事情就是这样。
It was a con.
这是一个骗局。
Which brings me to today's radio program about people doing some pretty extreme things to make money and some less extreme things to spend money.
这让我想起今天的广播节目，内容是关于人们为了赚钱而做一些相当极端的事情，以及为了花钱而做一些不那么极端的事情。
From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life distributed by Public Radio International.
这是来自芝加哥 WBEZ 的《This American Life》，由国际公共广播电台发行。
I'm Ira Glass.
我是艾拉·格拉斯。
Today, a program about getting and spending and the things that people will do, as in Marti's story, because they feel they have no choice.
今天，一个关于获取和支出以及人们会做的事情的节目，就像马蒂的故事一样，因为他们觉得自己别无选择。
Act One of today's show, Mothers of Invention.
今天的节目第一幕，发明之母。
In that act, Alex Kotlowitz and a half dozen people on how they felt they had to act to survive.
在那次表演中，亚历克斯·科特洛维茨和六个人讲述了他们认为必须采取行动才能生存的感受。
Act Two, That Guy.
第二幕，那个家伙。
In that act, we hear part of the psychology of spending money that is rarely discussed.
在那一幕中，我们听到了很少被讨论的花钱心理。
Act Three, Mall Rat.
第三幕，商场老鼠。
John Hodgman and the alleged secret tunnels under the Mall of America.
约翰·霍奇曼和所谓的美国购物中心地下秘密隧道。
Stay with us.
留在我们身边。
And let's begin with Act One.
让我们从第一幕开始。
Alex Kotlowitz has found that lately when he's been talking to people about money, what everybody seems to be coming back to is how money changed them, and how they feel ashamed of that.
亚历克斯·科特洛维茨发现，最近当他与人们谈论金钱时，每个人似乎都会回到金钱如何改变他们，以及他们如何为此感到羞耻。
And how they feel all sorts of other feelings that they aren't so proud of.
以及他们如何感受各种其他他们并不引以为傲的感觉。
Here's Alex.
这是亚历克斯。
Not long ago, I got taken for $250.
不久前，我被骗了250美元。
I know it's not a huge amount of money, but it's embarrassing.
我知道这不是一大笔钱，但这很尴尬。
We all like to think we're too savvy to be had.
我们都喜欢认为自己太精明了，以至于无法被人利用。
But here's why I really hesitate to share this story.
但这就是为什么我真的很犹豫是否要分享这个故事。
I was had by a minister, a man of God.
我的主人是一位牧师，一位属神的人。
This pastor has a storefront church on Chicago's South Side, and he kept some of the money I'd given him to help bail a mutual friend out of jail.
这位牧师在芝加哥南区有一家店面教堂，他保留了我给他的一些钱，用来帮助一位共同的朋友出狱。
I don't know that he planned it.
我不知道他是这么计划的。
He was clearly struggling financially.
他显然在经济上陷入困境。
He'd been a terrific mentor to my young friend, helping him through some tough times.
他是我年轻朋友的一位出色的导师，帮助他度过了一些困难时期。
But the opportunity presented itself, and too often, money gets in the way of even our best intentions.
但机会自然而然地出现了，而金钱往往会阻碍我们实现最好的愿望。
It exposes us.
它暴露了我们。
I've been talking to a lot of people lately who thought money exposed them.
最近我和很多人交谈过，他们认为金钱暴露了他们。
Like my friend Marty Oberman.
就像我的朋友马蒂·奥伯曼一样。
He was a Chicago Alderman for 12 years, and he got into politics out of a 1960s idealism.
他担任芝加哥市议员 12 年，出于 20 世纪 60 年代的理想主义进入政坛。
He'd been involved in the anti-war movement, and he earned a reputation as a reformer, as an opponent of the city's political machine.
他参与了反战运动，并赢得了改革者和城市政治机器反对者的声誉。
But slowly, almost imperceptibly, money began to change him starting when he first took office.
但从他刚上任时起，金钱就开始慢慢地、几乎不知不觉地改变了他。
Two or three weeks after I was elected in 1975, a neighbor of mine-- I was out walking my dog, and he came up to me.
1975 年我当选后两三周，我的一个邻居——我出去遛狗，他向我走来。
And he was a good friend and supporter.
他是我的好朋友和支持者。
And he said, boy, you have really offended so and so.
他说，小子，你真是得罪了某某。
And I was stunned.
我惊呆了。
I didn't know what he was talking-- I said, what are you talking about?
我不知道他在说什么——我说，你在说什么？
He said, two days ago, you walked right past this guy on LaSalle Street and didn't say hello, didn't even acknowledge him.
他说，两天前，你在拉萨尔街从这个人身边走过，没有打招呼，甚至没有跟他打招呼。
And he gave you $100.
他给了你 100 美元。
I didn't know what he was talking about.
我不知道他在说什么。
I'm sure I did walk past him on LaSalle Street.
我确信我确实在拉萨尔街从他身边走过。
I was probably in a conversation or in thought.
我可能正在谈话或思考。
And this friend of mine really chewed me out.
我的这个朋友真的很训斥我。
Well, that doesn't have to happen too many times before you reflexively start smiling and shaking hands and sounding phony to everybody you meet.
好吧，这种情况不必发生太多次，你就会条件反射地开始对你遇到的每个人微笑、握手、听起来很虚伪。
You don't know if they gave you money, if they're going to give you money.
你不知道他们是否给了你钱，或者他们是否会给你钱。
You become a glad-hander, but you don't have a choice.
你成为了一个乐于助人的人，但你别无选择。
This is what it does to you.
这就是它对你的作用。
One time, a real estate developer had $1,000 check delivered to Marty.
有一次，一位房地产开发商将 1,000 美元的支票交给了马蒂。
The developer needed a favor.
开发商需要帮忙。
The check sat in Marty's desk for a month before he finally decided to tear it up.
这张支票在马蒂的办公桌上放了一个月，最后他决定把它撕掉。
He eventually ran for statewide office and had to ask people for contributions of $10,000 and $15,000.
他最终竞选全州公职，并不得不要求人们捐款 10,000 美元和 15,000 美元。
He always feared what favors they'd be asking in return.
他总是担心他们会要求什么好处作为回报。
Then one day, he found himself asking someone for $50,000.
然后有一天，他发现自己向某人索要 5 万美元。
Why would a person write a check like that?
为什么一个人会写这样的支票？
One had to assume that he didn't give the $50,000 not thinking that someday, he might want to ask for something.
人们必须假设他没有给出 50,000 美元，而不是想到有一天他可能会想要索取一些东西。
And I knew then that I did not want to be doing this.
那时我就知道我不想这样做。
Marty told me he thought he could be a politician unaffected by money, that he could do it differently.
马蒂告诉我，他认为自己可以成为一名不受金钱影响的政治家，他可以采取不同的做法。
But instead, he got out of politics.
但他却退出了政坛。
Ted Fishman thought he could do it differently too.
特德·菲什曼 (Ted Fishman) 认为他也可以采取不同的做法。
For nine years, back in the 1980s, Ted, now an accomplished journalist, was a trader in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
早在 20 世纪 80 年代，特德 (Ted) 就职于芝加哥商业交易所 (Chicago Mercantile Exchange)，担任交易员长达 9 年之久，现已成为一名颇有成就的记者。
There, money is everything.
在那里，钱就是一切。
But Ted figured he'd always be able to keep his perspective.
但特德认为他永远能够保持自己的观点。
I remember just before I traded for the very first time, I had a meeting with the head of my clearing company, which is the organization on an exchange that acts sort of like your bank and does a lot of your bookkeeping for you.
我记得就在我第一次交易之前，我与清算公司的负责人举行了一次会议，该公司是交易所的组织，其作用有点像您的银行，并为您做很多簿记工作。
And this was an experienced trader, a pretty glamorous guy.
这是一位经验丰富的交易员，一位非常有魅力的人。
He had a big shock of hair and was always wearing Italian suits.
他有一头浓密的头发，总是穿着意大利西装。
And he invited all the new traders in who were going to use his clearing corp, and he gave us a little talk.
他邀请了所有将要使用他的清算公司的新交易员，并给我们做了一些演讲。
And his message to us was that we should fight for every single dollar.
他向我们传达的信息是，我们应该为每一块钱而奋斗。
Don't give anything up.
不要放弃任何东西。
Out on the street, he said, people kill for $5.
他说，在街上，人们为了 5 美元而杀人。
You should act like every $5 means something to you.
你应该表现得好像每 5 美元对你来说都很有意义。
And I was duly charged.
我被正式指控。
My first day on the Merc was humbling to say the least.
至少可以说，我在 Merc 的第一天是令人羞愧的。
People who hear my voice know that I have kind of a high voice, kind of a Topo Gigio type voice.
听过我声音的人都知道我的声音有点高，有点Topo Gigio类型的声音。
And it can be really grating.
这真的很令人烦恼。
Well, when I screamed in the pits for the first time, the other traders around actually held their ears.
好吧，当我第一次在场内尖叫时，周围的其他交易者实际上都竖起了耳朵。
And because I was trained to just keep announcing prices of this and that, and where I would buy, and where I would sell-- I'll pay 100 on 12, 30 at 1,000, I'll pay 12 on 100.
因为我接受的训练就是不断宣布这个和那个的价格，以及我将在哪里购买，以及我将在哪里出售 - 我会在 12 点支付 100，在 1,000 点支付 30，我会在 100 点支付 12。
Then you'd have to check it.
那你就得检查一下。
You'd say, I'm checking, 12 on 100, 12 on 100.
你可能会说，我正在检查，12 对 100，12 对 100。
And so here I was with my loud, screaming voice.
于是我就在这里大声尖叫。
And a guy came up to me, and he said, why don't we just write you a check, and you can shut up and go home.
一个人走过来对我说，我们为什么不给你写一张支票，然后你就可以闭嘴回家了。
And then actually, a guy who I had befriended on the exchange came up and made the first trade with me.
然后实际上，一个我在交易所认识的人出现并与我进行了第一笔交易。
And it was kind of my initiation.
这是我的开始。
The hazing was done, and I made that first trade.
欺辱结束了，我进行了第一笔交易。
Once I made the commitment to trade, I had the most grandiose visions of my future.
一旦我做出了从事贸易的承诺，我就对自己的未来有了最宏伟的愿景。
I would be one of the rich guys with a big mansion.
我会成为拥有大宅邸的富人之一。
I would earn enough money to run my own philanthropy because I was a do-gooder.
我会赚到足够的钱来经营自己的慈善事业，因为我是一个行善者。
And I made a lot of money.
我赚了很多钱。
I made more money than I knew what it was really.
我赚的钱比我自己知道的还要多。
I would go to Neiman Marcus and buy two Armani suits after a good day and fantasize about all the other things downtown that I would buy.
度过美好的一天后，我会去内曼·马库斯 (Neiman Marcus) 买两套阿玛尼 (Armani) 西装，并幻想着我会在市中心买其他所有东西。
And I did pretty well for a while.
我有一段时间做得很好。
One thing that happened that was very sobering for me was waking up one morning to the news on the radio.
发生的一件让我非常清醒的事情是一天早上醒来听到广播里的新闻。
And the news that morning in April 1986 was that there had been a terrible nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union.
1986 年 4 月的那天早上，传来的消息是苏联发生了一场可怕的核灾难。
And this was the Chernobyl disaster.
这就是切尔诺贝利灾难。
And I just heard about this irradiated cloud that was floating over Europe, and I didn't want to get myself to work.
我刚刚听说欧洲上空漂浮着这种受辐射的云，我不想让自己去工作。
The news was too sad.
这个消息太悲伤了。
But when I did get to work, I noticed that there was more energy on the floor than usual.
但当我真正开始工作时，我注意到地板上的能量比平时更多。
And I thought, well, what's going on here?
我想，好吧，这是怎么回事？
Is there something I don't know?
有什么我不知道的吗？
What was going on was that the whole exchange was giddy over the prospects of this nuclear disaster.
实际情况是，整个交流都对这场核灾难的前景感到头晕目眩。
And I was in the cattle pit at the time.
而我当时就在牛坑里。
And one of the first things somebody said to me was, well, all the pigs in Denmark are going to be dead.
有人对我说的第一件事就是，丹麦所有的猪都会死掉。
So the cattle price went sky high.
于是，牛的价格就飞涨了。
And that's when I learned the dictum that disasters are good for commodity trading.
就在那时，我了解到了这样一句话：灾难有利于商品交易。
As soon as I got in the action, all of that sadness disappeared.
当我开始行动时，所有的悲伤都消失了。
And I just jumped into the game.
我就跳进了游戏。
And that disaster made me more money in one day than I had made in my entire life up to then.
这场灾难让我一天赚到的钱比我迄今为止赚到的钱还要多。
It was like you show up every day to work hoping that everyone in your pit dies, and you get all their money.
这就好像你每天上班都希望坑里的每个人都死掉，然后你就能拿到他们所有的钱。
At the exchange, you create these castles of rationalization for your job.
在交易所，你为你的工作创造了这些合理化的城堡。
You've come to think, along with everybody else in those pits, that you're doing something essential to the operation of the world.
你和那些坑里的其他人一样，开始认为你正在做一些对世界运作至关重要的事情。
But the truth, of course, in the end is it's all about money.
但事实当然是，最终一切都是为了钱。
Several years after I quit trading, of course, the United States was attacked by terrorists in 9/11.
当然，在我退出交易几年后，美国在 9/11 事件中遭到了恐怖分子的袭击。
And the exchanges in the nation were closed.
全国的交流也被关闭。
But my brother was still trading on the CBOE at that time, Chicago Board Options Exchange.
但我哥哥当时仍在 CBOE 芝加哥期权交易所进行交易。
And I went back with him to help him out on the day that the exchange opened for the first day.
交易所第一天开业的那天，我就和他一起回去帮助他。
And there again, I saw the very same giddiness that existed after the Chernobyl disaster.
在那里，我再次看到了切尔诺贝利灾难后存在的同样的眩晕感。
Here we were with the worst domestic attack in the United States history, and the traders were running around as happy as could be.
我们正遭受美国历史上最严重的国内袭击，而交易员们却高兴极了。
And they would stop each other in the hall saying, you know, I don't feel good for what happened, but I'm doing great.
他们会在大厅里互相拦住，说，你知道，我对发生的事情感觉不太好，但我做得很好。
You hate to be doing great, but I'm doing great.
你讨厌做得很好，但我做得很好。
And they may be doing great, but I was pretty glad that I wasn't doing great that day.
他们可能做得很好，但我很高兴那天我做得不好。
The bottom had fallen out of everything in my life.
我生命中的一切都已经跌入谷底。
So I'm thinking, well, where can I walk in where there's a cash register, where they have a couple hundred bucks so I can make my car payment?
所以我在想，好吧，我可以走进哪里，哪里有收银机，那里有几百美元，这样我就可以支付汽车费用？
Bill Thompson was desperate.
比尔·汤普森感到绝望。
Like Ted Fishman, he had traded commodities.
和特德·菲什曼一样，他也从事过商品交易。
And though he wasn't as successful, he made a pretty good living at it.
尽管他没有那么成功，但他的生活却相当不错。
He bought a home in Winnetka, a tony suburb north of Chicago.
他在芝加哥北部的高档郊区温内特卡买了一套房子。
And when he was in his mid-30s, he married for a second time and had a son.
当他30多岁的时候，他第二次结婚并生了一个儿子。
Things were going pretty well.
事情进展得很顺利。
But then he lost his job, and he didn't bounce back.
但后来他丢了工作，再也没有东山再起。
He tried all sorts of things to make ends meet.
他尝试了各种方法来维持收支平衡。
He sold home security systems.
他出售家庭安全系统。
He put up a 976 line for a guy, so he could talk to girls on the phone.
他为一名男士拨打了 976 热线，这样他就可以通过电话与女孩交谈。
He worked sales jobs on the phone, earning $8 an hour.
他从事电话销售工作，每小时挣 8 美元。
He half-jokingly would say he was part of the working poor, but still living in Winnetka.
他半开玩笑地说他是贫困工人中的一员，但仍然住在温内特卡。
Soon, the bank began threatening to foreclose on his home.
很快，银行开始威胁要取消他房屋的赎回权。
He got behind on his gas bill.
他拖欠了煤气费。
And his relationship with his wife became volatile.
他和妻子的关系也变得不稳定。
Then his seven-year-old son got hit by a car.
然后他七岁的儿子被车撞了。
As I go and try to get his medical bills paid for, the insurance company says to me, it's contributory negligence, we don't owe you anything.
当我去试图支付他的医疗费用时，保险公司对我说，这是共同过失，我们不欠你任何东西。
You're on your own.
你只能靠你自己了。
We were virtually empty.
我们几乎是空的。
I've got no money.
我没有钱。
I've got $3,000 in hospital bills at the emergency room.
我在急诊室收到了 3,000 美元的住院账单。
I've got probably another $3,000 to $4,000 for his dental.
我可能还有 3,000 到 4,000 美元给他看牙医。
All his teeth were cracked, and they didn't know how they were going to put them back together.
他所有的牙齿都裂了，他们不知道怎样才能把它们装回去。
And there was a reminder every day of his injuries when I saw him.
当我看到他时，每天都会想起他的伤势。
To see this kid suffering like he was, the pressure that I was under and the guilt I felt for not providing for him and not knowing what I was going to do about that, that was the part that really put it over the edge for me.
看到这个孩子像他一样受苦，我所承受的压力，以及我因没有养活他而感到内疚，并且不知道我该怎么做，这才是真正让我感到崩溃的部分。
So Bill Thompson made a plan.
于是比尔·汤普森制定了一个计划。
He finds his son's plastic toy pistol, which he and his wife had taken away from him because they didn't want him playing with guns.
他找到了儿子的塑料玩具手枪，这是他和妻子从他身边拿走的，因为他们不想让他玩枪。
He steals a license plate from a parked car and, with magnets, attaches it to the rear of his van.
他从一辆停着的汽车上偷了一个车牌，并用磁铁将其固定在他的货车后部。
And he puts on his Burberry raincoat and a Chicago Cubs cap.
他穿上巴宝莉 (Burberry) 雨衣，戴上芝加哥小熊队 (Chicago Cubs) 帽子。
The first time, I was just scared to death.
第一次，我简直被吓死了。
And I went into a dry cleaners.
我走进一家干洗店。
And I wait 'til everybody leaves, and I pretend like I've got some garment or something.
我等到所有人都离开后，假装我有衣服什么的。
And I say, "I've got a gun." And she looks at me, and she just looks quizzical.
我说：“我有枪。”她看着我，看上去很奇怪。
And she goes, "what?"
她问道：“什么？”
And then I realized she doesn't speak English.
然后我意识到她不会说英语。
She calls somebody up to the front of the register that speaks English.
她打电话给收银台前面会说英语的人。
And now, the whole thing's blown, so I turn around and walk out.
现在，一切都结束了，所以我转身走了出去。
Well, nothing happened to me at that point.
好吧，那时我什么也没发生。
I said, well, next time, you should stick around to get the money.
我说，好吧，下次你就留下来拿钱吧。
So the first one that's successful, I walk into a cleaners.
所以第一个成功的，我走进了一家清洁工。
I said, I had a gun, open the drawer.
我说，我有枪，打开抽屉。
It was sort of like a learning process as I went along.
这有点像我的学习过程。
It was scary.
太可怕了。
You could tell I was nervous.
你看得出来我很紧张。
I didn't use any voice.
我没有使用任何声音。
I didn't act like I was going to jump the counter and pistol whip the guy or anything like that.
我并没有表现得好像我要跳到柜台并用手枪鞭打那个人或类似的事情。
It was more like I was panhandling.
这更像是我在乞讨。
I think I got $180.
我想我得到了 180 美元。
It was enough to placate my wife at the time, as I recall.
我记得当时这足以安抚我的妻子。
And it was just that simple.
就是这么简单。
It wasn't simple emotionally or anything.
这在情感上或任何事情上都不简单。
But physically, it was a very simple thing to do.
但从物理上来说，这是一件非常简单的事情。
I think I did two cleaners, a bakery store, and a cigar store.
我想我做过两个清洁工、一家面包店和一家雪茄店。
There was all sorts of things that can-- what they call-- go wrong.
有各种各样的事情可能——他们所说的——出错。
One time, I went in a dry cleaners down on Fourth and Linden in Wilmette.
有一次，我走进威尔梅特第四街和林登街的一家干洗店。
And I saw my neighbor in there.
我在那里看到了我的邻居。
And I just ducked my head and walked out.
我只是低下头走了出去。
Of course, Bill could have sold his house or his van, but he didn't.
当然，比尔本可以卖掉他的房子或货车，但他没有。
He was a doctor's son, raised with lots of money.
他是一名医生的儿子，家里有很多钱。
He didn't want to disappoint his wife.
他不想让妻子失望。
And at the time, frankly, it was hard to imagine living anywhere else, which, in hindsight, he acknowledges was crazy.
坦率地说，当时很难想象生活在其他地方，事后看来，他承认这很疯狂。
It's totally irrational.
这完全不合理。
My thinking is so twisted that I'm thinking that I've got to do it, or everything's going to come tumbling down.
我的想法是如此扭曲，以至于我认为我必须这样做，否则一切都会崩溃。
It doesn't really matter what happens to me.
发生在我身上的事并不重要。
If I get caught, I get away from this terrible situation I'm in.
如果我被抓住，我就能摆脱目前所处的可怕局面。
What do I have to lose?
我必须失去什么？
To me, it was never really about money.
对我来说，这从来都不是钱的问题。
It was just about surviving.
这只是为了生存。
And survival, then, meant maintaining a certain lifestyle that I couldn't maintain.
那么，生存就意味着维持某种我无法维持的生活方式。
So I decide I'm not getting enough money, so I'm going to stick up a bank.
所以我决定我没有得到足够的钱，所以我要开设一家银行。
I'm looking for something where I can pay the bills for a couple of months instead of $150 to go down and buy groceries.
我正在寻找一种可以支付几个月账单的东西，而不是花 150 美元去买杂货。
There's this bank in Wilmette on the corner of Ridge and Lake.
威尔梅特有一家银行，位于山脊和湖的拐角处。
It's a storefront bank.
这是一家店面银行。
It's not really a bank with big pillars and all that stuff.
它并不是一家真正拥有大支柱之类的银行。
It's in a strip mall.
它位于一家购物中心。
And I go in there.
我就进去了。
And I walk up to the teller, and I hand her the note.
我走到出纳员面前，把纸条递给她。
The note says, this is a bank robbery, I have a gun, put the money in the bag.
纸条上写着，这是一起银行抢劫案，我有枪，把钱放进包里。
And I had her put the money in the bag.
我让她把钱放进袋子里。
And I walk.
我走路。
I'm not running or anything like that.
我没有跑步或类似的事情。
I'm trying to be as calm as I can be.
我正在努力保持冷静。
Nobody stops me.
没有人阻止我。
I walked out and drove away.
我走出去，开车走了。
And I think it was something like $900, which gets it so that I can pay some bills.
我想大概是 900 美元，这样我就可以支付一些账单了。
And I remember, at that point, right after that one, I remember being a little bit happy.
我记得，就在那一刻之后，我记得有一点高兴。
But the pressure is still on.
但压力依然存在。
So I got to go do another bank.
所以我必须去另一家银行。
So I go, and I find a little storefront bank.
于是我就去了，找到了一家小店面银行。
And so I finally muster up enough courage to go in there.
于是我终于鼓起勇气进去了。
And I make out the note and everything in my cryptic handwriting.
我用神秘的笔迹辨认出了纸条和所有内容。
And I walk in to the teller, and I hand her the note.
我走进出纳员，把纸条递给她。
And she looks at me, and she goes, "don't be ridiculous." She laughs at me.
她看着我，说道：“别开玩笑了。”她嘲笑我。
She says, "I'm not giving you any money."
她说：“我不会给你钱。”
And so I'm just totally shocked.
所以我完全震惊了。
I said, well, aren't these people supposed to do what you say when you're robbing a bank?
我说，那你抢银行的时候，这些人不就得照你说的做吗？
And this woman says, "dpm't be ridiculous, get out of here." And so I leave.
这个女人说：“别胡说八道了，离开这里。”于是我就离开了。
I was told what to do, so I just leave.
我被告知要做什么，所以我就离开了。
And so I get out, and I started driving, thinking, well, that was bad.
于是我下了车，开始开车，心想，好吧，这很糟糕。
And so it's only about four blocks away from the police station or five blocks or whatever.
所以它距离警察局只有四个街区或五个街区之类的距离。
Evidently, they spotted the van.
显然，他们发现了那辆货车。
And so I was arrested, and it was over.
于是我被捕了，一切都结束了。
I was just relieved that my life was going to change at that point.
我松了一口气，因为我的生活将在那时发生改变。
And I didn't know whether it would be for the worse or the better or anything else.
我不知道这会变得更糟还是更好或者其他什么。
It was one of those things where I was just relieved.
这是让我松了一口气的事情之一。
Bill Thompson spent four years in prison, where the gangbangers nicknamed him Homer because they thought, with his pot belly and bald head, he looked like Homer Simpson.
比尔·汤普森在监狱里度过了四年，匪徒们给他起了个绰号“荷马”，因为他们认为他大腹便便、秃头，看起来像荷马·辛普森。
Bill's now trying to get on with his life.
比尔现在正在努力继续他的生活。
He got divorced.
他离婚了。
And last I spoke with him, he was involved in a business, exporting sporting goods to China.
上次我和他交谈时，他从事一项向中国出口体育用品的业务。
He's ashamed of this episode in his life, though he does mention it on his resume, presumably because employers will eventually find out anyway.
他对自己生活中的这段经历感到羞耻，尽管他在简历中确实提到了这一点，大概是因为无论如何雇主最终都会发现这一点。
But the hardest thing has been trying to rebuild his relationship with his children.
但最困难的事情是试图重建他与孩子们的关系。
To admit what he did without having it define him forever.
承认他所做的事，但不让它永远定义他。
When I spent a couple of years in a Chicago housing project researching a book, I was struck by the power of suburban status symbols.
当我花了几年时间在芝加哥的一个住房项目研究一本书时，我对郊区地位象征的力量感到震惊。
Even there, the local gang's car of choice was a Chevrolet Suburban Blazer.
即使在那里，当地帮派的首选汽车也是雪佛兰 Suburban Blazer。
At the time, teenagers were wearing Tommy Hilfiger and Guess.
当时，青少年穿着 Tommy Hilfiger 和 Guess。
Hush Puppies and Coach wallets came and went.
Hush Puppies 和 Coach 钱包来了又去。
But while there was this yearning to appear prosperous, what was also clear is that for those without money, a little cash-- and I'm talking $10, $20, $50-- can go a long way to making life bearable.
虽然人们渴望显得富裕，但同样清楚的是，对于那些没有钱的人来说，一点点现金——我说的是 10 美元、20 美元、50 美元——可以在很大程度上让生活变得可以忍受。
People come to me, they need money.
人们来找我，他们需要钱。
If you have nowhere else to turn, if you need $50, you can't go to your bank and get a loan for $50.
如果您无处可去，如果您需要 50 美元，您就无法去银行获得 50 美元的贷款。
You can't go to your mother or your sister or your cousin or your friend.
你不能去找你的母亲、你的姐妹、你的表兄弟或你的朋友。
If you got nowhere else to go, I'm your last hope.
如果你无处可去，我就是你最后的希望。
This is Dan Lebo.
这是丹·勒博。
He helps run the family business, Chicago Pawners and Jewelers.
他帮助经营家族企业芝加哥典当行和珠宝商。
It's in a pretty rough neighborhood on Chicago's West Side.
它位于芝加哥西区一个相当简陋的社区。
Here's how a pawn shop works.
以下是当铺的运作方式。
People bring in items to pawn, like jewelry or stereos, and then, to retrieve them, they have to pay back the cash they originally got for their item plus interest, which is regulated by the state.
人们把珠宝或音响等物品带到典当处，然后，为了取回它们，他们必须偿还最初购买物品时获得的现金以及利息，这是由国家监管的。
All transactions are reported to the police so that stolen goods can be detected.
所有交易都会向警方报告，以便侦查赃物。
The stereotype is 90% of my customers are criminals.
人们普遍认为我 90% 的客户都是罪犯。
Everything we take in is stolen.
我们带走的一切都被偷了。
It's dark and dim, and it's a seedy place, where people do seedy things.
这里又黑又暗，而且是一个肮脏的地方，人们在那里做肮脏的事情。
People don't know that 80% of my customers come back to get their stuff.
人们不知道我 80% 的顾客都会回来拿东西。
People don't come to pawn once.
人们不会来典当一次。
Sometimes they pawn the same item 20 times.
有时他们会典当同一个物品 20 次。
Sometimes they pawn it 50 times.
有时他们会典当 50 次。
Sometimes they pawn it once a week.
有时他们每周典当一次。
Many of my customers are repeat customers.
我的许多客户都是回头客。
They come once or twice a month over a course of years.
多年来，他们每月来一次或两次。
I get to know them pretty well.
我对他们非常了解。
My name is Mike.
我的名字是迈克。
I do a lot of business with these guys over here.
我在这里和这些人做了很多生意。
I've been dealing with them for about 30 years, maybe, 30, 40 years.
我和他们打交道已经有大约 30 年了，也许 30、40 年。
Michael is in his 40s.
迈克尔四十多岁了。
He's got a wife.
他有一个妻子。
He works in the maintenance department at public schools.
他在公立学校的维护部门工作。
I am his Sears Roebuck.
我是他的西尔斯罗巴克。
He buys a television if he needs it.
如果他需要的话，他会买一台电视。
If he needs a birthday gift, if he needs some money, he buys his jewelry from me.
如果他需要生日礼物，如果他需要一些钱，他就会从我这里购买珠宝。
There's a lot of people who use my store almost like a convenience store.
有很多人像便利店一样使用我的商店。
It's close.
很接近了。
What's up, Vernon?
怎么了，弗农？
Vernon Hey, [UNINTELLIGIBLE].
弗农嘿，[听不清]。
[UNINTELLIGIBLE]
[无法理解]
I know that.
我知道。
Dan Lebo I know Joe is a bus driver.
丹·勒博（Dan Lebo） 我知道乔是一名公交车司机。
I know Steve works in the public schools.
我知道史蒂夫在公立学校工作。
People come to my window, and I would hear their stories.
人们来到我的窗前，我会听他们的故事。
I'm going just down to a funeral down in Kentucky.
我要去肯塔基州参加一个葬礼。
And I just figured I needed some gas money.
我只是想我需要一些汽油钱。
I ain't getting paid yet.
我还没拿到工资
Now how much would you give me if I sell this back?
现在如果我把这个卖回来你会给我多少钱？
What is that, an Uzi?
那是什么，乌兹？
Female Customer 1 No, it's a violin.
女顾客1 不是，是小提琴。
Don't play with me.
别跟我玩。
Today is Precious' birthday.
今天是珍宝的生日。
I need some money.
我需要一些钱。
I'm want to go buy her some bookbags, one of the roller caddies that you put the books in.
我想去给她买一些书包，一个你放书的滚轮球童。
They would tell me, this is what I need, this is my problem.
他们会告诉我，这就是我需要的，这是我的问题。
My car broke down, or my lights are going to be turned off.
我的车坏了，或者我的灯要熄灭了。
Or my son is in jail, I have to bail him out.
或者我的儿子进了监狱，我必须保释他。
I need clothes for my kids to go to school.
我需要衣服让我的孩子去上学。
I'm going to National Louis University.
我要去国立路易斯大学。
So today is the first day of class, and I need to buy a bus pass for school.
今天是第一天上课，我需要买一张上学的公交车票。
And the financial aid hasn't kicked in yet.
而且财政援助还没有开始实施。
Hi.
你好。
Female Customer 3 I wanted to know how much I will get for these.
女顾客 3 我想知道这些要多少钱。
I don't know.
我不知道。
What's the most I can get for them?
我最多能为他们得到什么？
Those were one of those instances where it tugs at your heart a little bit.
这些都是那些有点牵动你心的例子之一。
A woman came in at first, and there was a pair of hoop or little cluster earrings that they had.
首先进来的是一个女人，她们有一对圈形或小簇耳环。
The question was, well, how much do you need.
问题是，你需要多少。
And she had no idea.
她不知道。
It was one of those things.
这是其中之一。
She's never done this before.
她以前从未这样做过。
Well, I won't make you an offer.
好吧，我不会给你报价。
I like to have an idea of what you're trying to borrow.
我想知道你想借什么。
Give me an idea.
给我一个主意。
I'm going to tell my boyfriend to come in here because he's the one who paid for them.
我要告诉我男朋友来这里，因为他是付钱的人。
She just goes, let me go get my husband.
她就走了，让我去找我丈夫。
Well, you need money.
嗯，你需要钱。
Do you need it for a bill or whatever?
您需要它来支付账单或其他什么吗？
It's for a funeral.
是为了葬礼。
Dan Lebo Oh.
丹·勒博哦。
Basically, how much more money do you need for that?
基本上，你还需要多少钱？
He says he needs $800.
他说他需要 800 美元。
Husband Of Female Customer 3 I don't know, $800 maybe.
女顾客3的丈夫我不知道，大概800美元吧。
But I want to see how much-- I don't know how much you could borrow.
但我想看看你能借多少钱。
And they were something that I would sell in my store for probably less than $200.
我会在我的商店里以不到 200 美元的价格出售它们。
I'm thinking this in my head.
我在脑子里想这个。
What'd you say?
你说什么？
$800?
800 美元？
Husband Of Female Customer 3 Yeah, I was.
女顾客的丈夫 3 是的，我是。
I just tell them, I'm sorry, I can't help.
我只是告诉他们，对不起，我无能为力。
Thanks a lot.
多谢。
Dan Lebo Those are the things that hurt because you can't help them.
丹·勒博（Dan Lebo） 这些都是令人痛苦的事情，因为你无法帮助它们。
Because they were just nothing of substance, nothing that I could really loan money on to help them or get them anywhere close to what they needed.
因为它们根本没有任何实质内容，我无法真正借钱来帮助他们或让他们接近他们所需要的东西。
And they went on their way.
他们继续赶路。
And I don't think they came back.
我认为他们没有回来。
Let's see, you had $50.
让我们看看，你有 50 美元。
You had $80, is that right?
你有 80 美元，是吗？
Please, could you spring me another $10?
请你再给我 10 美元好吗？
Please?
请？
I'm coming back to get it in two weeks.
我两周后回来拿。
What'd you want?
你想要什么？
Another $10?
另外10美元？
Female Customer 4 Yeah, give me another $10.
女顾客4 好的，再给我10块钱。
I'll work with that.
我会处理这个问题。
I love you.
我爱你。
Thank you.
谢谢。
All right.
好的。
Dan Lebo She gets more than most people do just because she's been coming here for 1,000 years, in and out.
丹·勒博（Dan Lebo） 她比大多数人得到的更多只是因为她已经来到这里一千年了，进进出出。
But I know my stuff's safe.
但我知道我的东西是安全的。
You know what I'm saying?
你知道我在说什么吗？
Can't leave it at home.
不能把它留在家里。
I'll walk around with the stuff in my purse.
我会带着钱包里的东西四处走动。
That's bad.
那很糟糕。
I find all too often that people don't like leaving their jewelry or their valuables in their house.
我经常发现人们不喜欢把珠宝或贵重物品留在家里。
For them, they think it's safer to be in the store.
对于他们来说，他们认为呆在商店里更安全。
It's almost like a safety deposit box.
它几乎就像一个保险箱。
Unfortunately, in the business, a family member taking from another family member happens all the time.
不幸的是，在生意场上，一个家庭成员从另一个家庭成员手中夺走东西的情况时有发生。
Some customers, their son has a problem.
有些顾客，他们的儿子有问题。
Their son's friend has a problem, their nephew, their cousin.
他们儿子的朋友有问题，他们的侄子，他们的表弟。
This was probably 8, 10 years ago.
这大概是八、十年前的事了。
This particular gentleman would pawn a guitar.
这位特别的绅士会典当一把吉他。
Didn't think anything of it.
没想什么。
But a couple days later, an older gentleman would come in with the pawn ticket and pick up the guitar.
但几天后，一位年长的绅士会带着当票进来并拿起吉他。
He would pawn it and be picked up, pawn it and be picked up.
他会当掉它并被捡起，当掉它并被捡起。
This would go on.
这种情况还会继续下去。
And we would say, who's the person who pawns it?
我们会说，典当它的人是谁？
Well, that's my son.
嗯，那是我儿子。
Oh, he stole it from the church, and I'm getting it back because we need it.
哦，他从教堂偷了它，我要把它拿回来，因为我们需要它。
And part of the question we would ask the father, we'd say, well, what would you like us to do?
我们会问父亲的部分问题是，好吧，你希望我们做什么？
Because we could say, we don't have to take in the guitar.
因为我们可以说，我们不必接受吉他。
Because what ends up happening, the son gets the money.
因为最终发生的事情，儿子得到了钱。
The father then has to come in and pay his money to get the guitar back.
然后父亲必须进来付钱才能拿回吉他。
And the father would say, you have to take the guitar.
父亲会说，你必须拿吉他。
Because otherwise, my son will sell it to some guy on the street, and then my guitar is gone.
因为否则的话，我儿子会把它卖给街上的某个人，然后我的吉他就不见了。
Take the guitar.
拿吉他。
I'll get it back.
我会把它拿回来。
And that's pretty much the way it went.
事情大致就是这样。
You remember the story I told you about the minister who took me for $250?
你还记得我给你讲过的关于牧师以 250 美元收买我的故事吗？
Well, I conjured up ways to take revenge.
好吧，我想出了一些报复的方法。
I thought maybe I could publicly humiliate him by writing about the episode.
我想也许我可以通过写下这一集来公开羞辱他。
Or better yet, I could show up at a Sunday service and expose him to his parishioners.
或者更好的是，我可以出现在周日的礼拜仪式上，让他的教区居民认识他。
I thought about leafletting outside his church.
我考虑过在他的教堂外散发传单。
I even went so far as to write the material for the leaflet.
我什至还写了传单的材料。
I shared all these possible tactics with my wife.
我与我的妻子分享了所有这些可能的策略。
But she rolled her eyes.
但她翻了个白眼。
Because in the end, I did nothing.
因为到最后我什么也没做。
I just walked away.
我就走开了。
Part of it, I was just too ashamed.
部分原因是我太羞耻了。
I'm too easy a mark.
我太容易被标记了。
Why advertise that?
为什么要这么打广告？
But the worst of it, I began to feel sorry for the guy.
但最糟糕的是，我开始为这个人感到难过。
And I thought his stealing from me shouldn't nullify all the good things he did for my young friend, which brings me to my final story about money.
我认为他从我这里偷东西不应该抵消他为我年轻的朋友所做的所有好事，这让我想到了我最后一个关于金钱的故事。
This is not an easy story to tell about myself because I fancy myself as one of those guys who is not taken easily.
这不是一个容易讲述的关于我自己的故事，因为我认为自己是那些不容易被抓住的人之一。
I should've seen this guy coming, and I didn't.
我应该看到这个人来了，但我没有。
Because I wanted to believe this was it.
因为我想相信就是这样。
This is my friend Tony Fitzpatrick.
这是我的朋友托尼·菲茨帕特里克。
He's a successful artist who draws and paints these exquisite, boisterous prints inspired by his experiences in Chicago.
他是一位成功的艺术家，他的灵感来自于他在芝加哥的经历，创作了这些精美、热闹的版画。
You may be familiar with his work.
你可能熟悉他的作品。
He's done the album covers for Aaron Neville and Steve Earle.
他为亚伦·内维尔和史蒂夫·厄尔制作了专辑封面。
Well, early in Tony's career, when he was still struggling, Tony got seduced by a big time art dealer, a man named Vrej Baghoomian.
好吧，在托尼职业生涯的早期，当他还在挣扎时，托尼被一位名叫 Vrej Baghoomian 的大型艺术品经销商所诱惑。
He owned a gallery on Broadway in New York.
他在纽约百老汇拥有一家画廊。
Boy, he was smooth.
男孩，他很顺利。
He smoked Dunhills.
他抽登喜路香烟。
You know what I mean?
你知道我的意思？
This guy was European.
这家伙是欧洲人。
I thought, this is it, this is my shot at making the majors.
我想，就是这样，这就是我进入大满贯的机会。
So I worked, and I worked, and I worked.
所以我工作，我工作，我工作。
And I kind of pushed away everything except the show.
我有点推掉了除了演出之外的一切。
It was very difficult because my wife was more and more pregnant.
这非常困难，因为我的妻子越来越怀孕了。
And she was alone all the time.
而她一直都是一个人。
My big New York show was more important than anything.
我在纽约的大型演出比任何事情都重要。
Because in my own rationalizations, that was what was going to take care of our newborn son and help buy us a home.
因为在我自己的合理解释中，这就是照顾我们刚出生的儿子并帮助我们买房的原因。
And that's what was running through my head the whole time I was making this New York show.
这就是我在纽约制作这场演出的整个过程中一直在思考的事情。
That all of a sudden, this chunk of dough was going to make me more respectable.
突然之间，这一块面团会让我变得更受人尊敬。
So the show opens.
于是演出拉开帷幕。
Vrej isn't there.
弗雷吉不在。
All of his staff, instead of being out in the open, talking to people, helping to sell stuff, is standing around Vrej's fax machine, staring at it.
他的所有员工都没有公开地与人们交谈、帮助推销东西，而是站在 Vrej 的传真机周围，盯着它。
My Philadelphia dealer was there.
我的费城经销商在那里。
And he said, let me take a look in the back room.
他说，让我看看后面的房间。
So he went by the back room, looked in there.
于是他走到后面的房间，往里看。
There were no paintings.
没有画。
There were no pieces of art back there.
那里没有艺术品。
It was empty.
里面是空的。
That's when I knew the whole thing was circling the bowl.
那时我才知道整个事情都是围绕着碗转的。
And we saw it coming.
我们看到了它的到来。
There was nothing we could do.
我们无能为力。
Now, in the meantime, me, my wife, and my Philadelphia dealer sold 21 pieces out of the show, probably about $50,000 to $60,000 worth of work.
现在，与此同时，我、我的妻子和我的费城经销商售出了 21 件展览作品，价值可能约为 50,000 至 60,000 美元。
We flew back to Chicago.
我们飞回芝加哥。
And three days later, I got a call from a kid named Eric who worked at Vrej Baghoomian as just an art installer.
三天后，我接到一个名叫埃里克（Eric）的孩子的电话，他在 Vrej Baghoomian 工作，只是一名艺术品安装工。
And he said, look, the federal marshals are coming to padlock the gallery.
他说，看，联邦法警要来锁画廊了。
Vrej has fled the country.
弗雷吉已逃离该国。
All of the checks and all of the money that was paid for your work was taken by the staff and by Vrej.
所有的支票和所有为你的工作支付的钱都被工作人员和 Vrej 拿走了。
By this point, we had a three-week-old baby.
此时，我们已经有了一个三周大的婴儿。
I had to go home on a Saturday evening, and I had to tell my wife we didn't have any money.
星期六晚上我不得不回家，我不得不告诉我的妻子我们没有钱。
We were broke.
我们破产了。
I was out $40,000.
我损失了 40,000 美元。
And I let it be known to anybody who cared or anybody in the art world that eventually I was going to catch up with Vrej Baghoomian.
我让所有关心此事的人或艺术界的人都知道，我最终将赶上 Vrej Baghoomian。
Five years ago, I'm on Green Street in New York with my buddy Mickey [?
五年前，我和我的好友米奇在纽约格林街[？
Carton.
纸盒。
?] And this kind of older, Middle Eastern guy walks up, and he goes, Tony, Tony, good to see you, Tony.
？] 这位年长的中东人走了过来，他说，托尼，托尼，很高兴见到你，托尼。
Shakes my hand, gives me a little European hug, and walks away.
握了握我的手，给了我一个小小的欧式拥抱，然后走开了。
It took me about 20 seconds to realize, that's Vrej.
我花了大约 20 秒才意识到，那是 Vrej。
Now, I've been telling everybody in the art world, when I see him, I'm going to kick his ass, I'm going to pound $40,000 worth of misery out of his hide.
现在，我一直在告诉艺术界的每个人，当我看到他时，我要踢他的屁股，我要从他的隐藏中打掉价值 40,000 美元的痛苦。
I didn't do any of those things.
我没有做任何这些事情。
I said, hey, Vrej, wait up.
我说，嘿，Vrej，等等。
And he turned to me, and he looked really old.
他转向我，他看起来真的很老。
I was the least of his problems of guys he owed money to.
在他欠钱的人中，我是最没有问题的。
He had borrowed money from loan sharks, guys who were barely legal in that business, guys who would send guys if you didn't pay up.
他从高利贷者那里借了钱，这些人在这个行业几乎不合法，如果你不还钱，他们就会派人来。
He was really beaten down, and he looked it.
他确实被打垮了，他看起来也是如此。
So I said, Vrej, how are you?
所以我说，Vrej，你好吗？
And he said, I've been ill.
他说，我病了。
And I said, I heard that.
我说，我听到了。
And he said, some day, we should really talk.
他说，有一天，我们应该真正谈谈。
And he shook my hand again and ran off.
然后他又握了握我的手，然后就跑掉了。
So I got back to Mickey.
于是我又回到了米奇身边。
And Mickey said, yeah, there's your pal.
米奇说，是的，那是你的朋友。
There's Vrej Baghoomian.
弗雷·巴古米安 (Vrej Baghoomian) 就是其中之一。
Yeah, this is the guy you're going to kick his ass, you're going to pound him up one side of Broadway and down the other.
是的，这就是你要踢他屁股的人，你要把他从百老汇的一边打到另一边。
And you didn't do anything.
而你什么也没做。
And I didn't.
但我没有。
The more and more I thought about it, the more my anger was tempered by just feeling stupid for wanting those things, the grand prize, the big New York art world.
我想得越多，我的愤怒就越是平息下来，因为我觉得自己很愚蠢，想要这些东西，大奖，纽约的大艺术世界。
I can never, ever again let this be about money.
我再也不能让这件事与金钱有关了。
I learned that the real value of making art is everything you go through while you're making it.
我了解到艺术创作的真正价值在于你创作时所经历的一切。
And the long and short of it, I still had the show.
总而言之，我仍然有演出。
I was still the author of all those pieces.
我仍然是所有这些作品的作者。
I still had an opening night full of the best work at that point in my life that I'd ever made.
我仍然度过了一个首演之夜，充满了我一生中最好的作品。
When I go to the Art Institute, I run to one place.
当我去艺术学院时，我就跑到一个地方。
I go to Gallery 236 and 237, and I look at the Joseph Cornell boxes.
我去了 236 和 237 号画廊，看了约瑟夫·康奈尔的盒子。
They're these tiny things with little glass pipes in them and star charts and sand and dolls and cutouts of birds and chicken wire.
它们是一些小东西，里面有小玻璃管、星图、沙子、玩偶、鸟类和铁丝网的剪纸。
He took all of this inert stuff and made these magical, little environments.
他利用所有这些惰性的东西创造了这些神奇的小环境。
And I have never-- never once when I looked at that work did I ever wonder what it costs.
当我看到那件作品时，我从来没有想过它的成本是多少。
Tony Fitzpatrick.
托尼·菲茨帕特里克。
Alex Kotlowitz is a reporter.
亚历克斯·科特洛维茨是一名记者。
Amy Drozdowska-McGuire, the producer.
艾米·德罗兹多斯卡-麦奎尔，制片人。
Alex is the author of many books, including There Are No Children Here and now, most recently, Never a City So Real.
亚历克斯是多本书的作者，包括《这里没有孩子》和《现在》，最近出版了《从来没有一个城市如此真实》。
Versions of these stories originally appeared on Chicago Public Radio's series Chicago Matters, which gets funding from the Chicago Community Trust.
这些故事的版本最初出现在芝加哥公共广播电台的系列节目《芝加哥事务》中，该系列节目获得了芝加哥社区信托基金的资助。
Executive producer of that series is Julia McEvoy.
该剧的执行制片人是朱莉娅·麦克沃伊。
Coming up, John Hodgman gets on the wrong side of an entire mall.
约翰·霍奇曼 (John Hodgman) 出现在整个购物中心的错误一侧。
That's in a minute from Chicago Public Radio and Public Radio International when our program continues.
一分钟后，芝加哥公共广播电台和国际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, 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，为您带来关于该主题的各种不同类型的故事。
Today's show, Getting and Spending, stories about what people think they have to do to make their money.
今天的节目《获取与支出》讲述了人们认为必须做什么才能赚钱的故事。
That was the first half of the show.
那是节目的前半部分。
And in this half of the program, what they think they have to do to spend their money.
在节目的这半部分中，他们认为自己必须做什么才能花钱。
We've arrived at Act Two of our show.
我们已经到了节目的第二幕了。
Act Two-- That Guy.
第二幕——那个家伙。
Now, I think about this next story as a story about spending money.
现在，我将下一个故事视为一个关于花钱的故事。
Though I have to say, the person who did this story, one of our producers, Diane Cook, hates it when I say that that's what this story is about.
尽管我不得不说，制作这个故事的人、我们的制片人之一黛安·库克（Diane Cook）很讨厌我说这就是这个故事的内容。
She points out, and I guess I agree, that this story is about so much more than just how you spend your money.
她指出，我想我同意，这个故事不仅仅是关于你如何花钱。
It's about a phenomenon that she notices all the time with people that she knows and people that she doesn't know.
这是关于她在认识的人和不认识的人身上经常注意到的一种现象。
Here's Diane.
这是黛安。
When my boyfriend, Jorge, was a teenager and started to use deodorant, he had to choose which kind to buy.
当我的男朋友豪尔赫（Jorge）十几岁的时候开始使用除臭剂时，他必须选择购买哪种。
He tried a bunch of different brands.
他尝试了很多不同的品牌。
But Old Spice reminded him too much of sailors, Right Guard made him feel like he needed to be playing basketball all the time, and Arrid Extra Dry was way too intense of a name for the moderate climate he lived in.
但“Old Spice”让他想起了太多水手，“Right Guard”让他觉得自己需要一直打篮球，而“Arrid Extra Dry”这个名字对于他所生活的温和气候来说太强烈了。
So he settled on an innocuous, nondescript brand, Mitchum.
于是他选择了一个无害、不起眼的品牌——Mitchum。
It's old.
它很旧了。
It's been around forever.
它一直存在。
And the reason it's been around forever is because people use it.
它之所以能永远存在，是因为人们使用它。
And not enough people use it that there's a kind of person that uses it.
使用它的人还不够多，以至于没有足够的人使用它。
And not too few people use it that you're making a statement.
不少人用它来表明你正在发表声明。
It's just deodorant.
这只是除臭剂。
It doesn't make me feel cool.
这并不让我感觉很酷。
It doesn't make me feel uncool.
这并不会让我觉得不酷。
Makes me feel like I'm putting deodorant on.
让我感觉像是在涂除臭剂。
Fast forward 15 years.
快进 15 年。
Jorge lives in New York.
豪尔赫住在纽约。
He boards a subway car one morning.
一天早上，他登上了一辆地铁车厢。
And with nothing to read, he turns his attention to an ad on the train.
由于没有什么可看的，他把注意力转向了火车上的广告。
I start reading it, and it's just this ridiculous ad.
我开始读它，这只是一个可笑的广告。
It's a ridiculous message about being able to kick in the windows of a train in an emergency.
这是一个关于在紧急情况下能够踢开火车窗户的可笑信息。
And it's like, you're a tough guy if you can do this.
就像，如果你能做到这一点，你就是一个硬汉。
I'm reading it.
我正在读它。
I'm like, this is stupid, this is stupid, this is stupid.
我想，这太蠢了，这太蠢了，这太蠢了。
And so I get to the punch line or whatever.
所以我就说到了妙语之类的。
This is about Mitchum.
这是关于米彻姆的。
What it actually says is, if you're pretty sure you could kick in a window in the event of an emergency, then you're a Mitchum man.
它实际上说的是，如果你非常确定在紧急情况下你可以踢开窗户，那么你就是米彻姆人。
And you look around, the entire train is plastered with ads.
你环顾四周，整列火车上都贴满了广告。
And they're all ads for Mitchum.
这些都是米彻姆的广告。
And they're all like, if you've ever vaulted over anything in order to catch a train, you're a Mitchum man.
他们都说，如果你曾经为了赶火车而跳过任何东西，那么你就是米彻姆人。
If you are a total prick, then you're a Mitchum man.
如果你是个彻头彻尾的混蛋，那么你就是一个米彻姆人。
It's just completely and utterly embarrassing because I'm not that guy.
这真是太尴尬了，因为我不是那个人。
I don't think that.
我不这么认为。
I think, shoot, I missed the train.
我想，天哪，我错过了火车。
You know what I mean?
你知道我的意思？
Everyone stay seated and remain calm while there's an emergency.
发生紧急情况时，每个人都坐在座位上并保持冷静。
I'm sure we'll be moving soon.
我确信我们很快就会搬家。
There must be a reasonable explanation for this.
对此必须有一个合理的解释。
So OK, his deodorant has a lame ad campaign.
好吧，他的除臭剂的广告活动很蹩脚。
So what?
所以呢？
And it didn't matter to Jorge until he found himself standing in the deodorant aisle at the supermarket a week later and staring at the Michtum, unable to reach his arm out, pick it up, and put it in his basket.
这对豪尔赫来说并不重要，直到一周后他发现自己站在超市的除臭剂过道里，盯着 Michtum，无法伸出手臂，将其拿起并放入篮子中。
I thought that if I bought the Mitchum, I was going to take it to the checkout line, and I was going to put it there, and the person at the grocery line was going to think that I was trying Mitchum for the first time because of the advertising.
我想，如果我买了 Mitchum，我会把它带到收银台，然后把它放在那里，而杂货店排队的人会因为广告而认为我第一次尝试 Mitchum。
There's nothing about Mitchum that it would be obvious to somebody that, hey, he's been using Mitchum for 10, 15 years.
对于 Mitchum 来说，对于其他人来说，没有什么是显而易见的，嘿，他已经使用 Mitchum 10 年、15 年了。
You know what I mean?
你知道我的意思？
If it was-- I don't know-- Old English shaving cream, and I'm wearing a top hat, and I'm 70 years old, and they started a marketing campaign, they could be like, oh, that guy has been using that stuff forever.
如果它是——我不知道——古老的英国剃须膏，我戴着一顶高帽，我已经 70 岁了，他们开始了一场营销活动，他们可能会说，哦，那个家伙一直在使用那种东西。
The beauty of the brand is that there's nothing associated with it.
该品牌的美妙之处在于没有任何与之相关的东西。
So as soon as they make this whole Mitchum man campaign, all of a sudden, you cannot help, but be like, anybody you see buying Mitchum is just going to instantly be like, hey, they must love those Mitchum man ads.
因此，一旦他们进行了整个“米彻姆男人”广告活动，突然之间，你就会情不自禁地想，任何你看到购买“米彻姆男人”的人都会立即说，嘿，他们一定喜欢那些“米彻姆男人”广告。
He left the store deodorant-less, which in and of itself is pretty embarrassing.
他离开商店时没有使用除臭剂，这本身就很尴尬。
He doesn't want to be the guy who buys Mitchum because of the ads.
他不想成为因为广告而购买米彻姆的人。
But does he really want to be the guy who boycotts Mitchum because of the ads?
但他真的想成为那个因为广告而抵制米彻姆的人吗？
How far do you want to go to make sure you're not that guy?
你想走多远才能确保你不是那个人？
I think of this as the that-guy phenomenon.
我认为这是“那个人”现象。
It starts with someone you're repulsed by or simply never wanted to be.
它始于你排斥或根本不想成为的人。
And then one day, you realize you are that guy.
然后有一天，你意识到你就是那个人。
My friend Mike was a troublemaker in school, and he hated the authority figures who caught him breaking the rules.
我的朋友迈克在学校里是个麻烦制造者，他讨厌那些发现他违反规则的权威人物。
Now he's the vice principal in charge of busting kids like him.
现在他是副校长，负责管教像他这样的孩子。
And another friend of mine, who I hadn't heard from in years, emailed me to let me know that she was getting divorced.
我的另一个朋友，我已经多年没有收到她的消息了，她给我发电子邮件告诉我她要离婚了。
She's young, 29, and she couldn't believe the course that her life had taken.
她还很年轻，29 岁，她简直不敢相信自己的人生轨迹。
The last line in her email was, I can't believe I'm that girl.
她电子邮件中的最后一行是，我不敢相信我是那个女孩。
Or take Brett.
或者以布雷特为例。
He has steadfastly resisted one of the travel industry's greatest inventions, wheeled luggage, because he doesn't want to be a wheeled luggage guy.
他坚决抵制旅游业最伟大的发明之一——带轮行李箱，因为他不想成为一个带轮行李箱的人。
The people who have wheeled luggage are assistant sales managers going to conferences someplace or old ladies, and they're not real travelers.
带轮子行李的人是去某个地方开会的助理销售经理或老太太，他们不是真正的旅行者。
For Brett, the only thing a real traveler needs is a backpack.
对于布雷特来说，真正的旅行者唯一需要的就是背包。
I don't need no wheels.
我不需要轮子。
I can carry everything.
我可以承载一切。
It was years and years that I would be lugging this huge backpack through airports, sneering at the people who were wheeling their thing behind them.
年复一年，我拖着这个巨大的背包穿过机场，嘲笑那些在身后推着东西的人。
If you can breeze through the airport, pulling your thing without breaking a sweat, somehow you're not having the full experience.
如果你可以轻松地穿过机场，不费吹灰之力地拉着你的东西，不知怎的，你并没有获得完整的体验。
The backpack he used was the backpack of his youth.
他用的背包是他年轻时的背包。
He had taken it on trips to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
他带着它去欧洲、亚洲和中东旅行。
Every scuff or stain on it had a story.
它上面的每一个磨损或污渍都有一个故事。
He'd even slept on it.
他甚至睡在上面。
It's not going too far to say that from Brett's perspective, his backpack is what made him an individual.
从布雷特的角度来看，说他的背包使他成为一个独立的人并不过分。
He was different from the sea of look-alike businessmen, running through the airport with their wheeled luggage.
他不同于那些拖着轮子行李在机场里跑来跑去的长得一模一样的商人。
And he liked being different.
他喜欢与众不同。
But then, at age 30, he realized, the thing that made them different from him is that they were getting everywhere faster and without leg cramps.
但后来，到了 30 岁时，他意识到，他们与他的不同之处在于，他们去任何地方都更快，而且不会出现腿部抽筋的情况。
If this dilemma sounds a little ridiculous to you, remember, for a moment, your own attitude, once upon a time, about cell phones.
如果这个困境对你来说有点荒谬，请暂时记住你自己对手机的态度。
You were never going to be that guy yapping away on his phone.
你永远不会成为那个拿着手机大喊大叫的人。
But now you are.
但现在你是了。
And why?
为什么？
Because at this point, the only reason not to have a cell phone is to be that guy who refuses to join the club, which isn't cool.
因为在这一点上，没有手机的唯一原因就是拒绝加入俱乐部，这并不酷。
At some point, the embarrassment of becoming that guy who worries about becoming that guy outweighs the ego of carrying your thing.
在某些时候，成为那个担心成为那个人的人所带来的尴尬超过了携带你的东西的自我。
Because we're talking about the wheel.
因为我们正在谈论轮子。
It's the most basic caveman technology imaginable.
这是可以想象到的最基本的穴居人技术。
It's like saying, I'm not going to use fire to cook my meat because it's too bourgeois or something like that.
这就像在说，我不会用火来煮肉，因为它太资产阶级了或者类似的东西。
A monkey can figure out that it's easier to use a wheel to pull something than it is to carry it on your back.
猴子会发现用轮子拉东西比背在背上更容易。
I've had a lot of that guy moments.
我经历过很多这样的时刻。
But possibly, the most sobering one went like this.
但最发人深省的可能是这样的。
As a kid, I spent a lot of time in model homes and open houses.
小时候，我花了很多时间在样板房和开放参观中。
My mom would drag me to them every weekend.
我妈妈每个周末都会拉着我去看他们。
We'd wander through, surrounded by other women my mom's age and their unfortunate children.
我们漫步其中，周围都是与我母亲同龄的妇女和她们不幸的孩子。
But none of it ever made any sense to me.
但这些对我来说都没有任何意义。
I knew for a fact we weren't moving, totally not in the market for a house.
我知道我们确实没有搬家，完全不在市场上买房子。
And yet, we were there, my mom running her hand over the newly upholstered sofa or marveling at their gleaming, white kitchen.
然而，我们在那里，我妈妈把手放在新软垫的沙发上，或者惊叹于他们闪闪发光的白色厨房。
I hated these afternoons.
我讨厌这些下午。
The houses were so different from ours.
那些房子和我们的很不一样。
And I knew that my mom thought that they were better.
我知道我妈妈认为它们更好。
We were there to covet what they had, and we didn't.
我们在那里是为了觊觎他们拥有的东西，但我们没有。
I vowed to myself I'd never be the kind of person who did this.
我对自己发誓我永远不会成为那种做这种事的人。
Then one sunny day, at the ripe age of 26, driving down my street past a condo for sale, I spotted an open house sign.
然后，在一个阳光明媚的日子，26 岁的我，沿着我家的街道开车经过一栋待售公寓时，发现了一个开放参观的标志。
And for reasons I can't explain, I was overcome with delight.
由于我无法解释的原因，我欣喜若狂。
I squealed.
我尖叫起来。
I actually squealed, an open house.
我实际上尖叫了，开放日。
Then turning to my boyfriend, let's go in and see what it's like.
然后转向我男朋友，我们进去看看是什么样子。
Then I froze.
然后我愣住了。
I had become that guy, and that guy was my mom.
我已经成为那个人，那个人就是我的妈妈。
You can only fight so much what you're going to become.
你只能与你将要成为的人进行斗争。
It's going to be there waiting for you in the end because it's just true, some of it.
它最终会在那里等你，因为它是真实的，其中一些。
Wheels are better.
轮子更好。
Although I have to say, it's a little embarrassing.
虽然不得不说，但还是有点尴尬。
But I still don't have the classic, black pull-along.
但我仍然没有经典的黑色拉杆。
Mine are cooler.
我的比较凉快
I've got some kind of flaps or color on it or something like that.
我上面有某种襟翼或颜色或类似的东西。
So I haven't entirely given in.
所以我还没有完全屈服。
I've been battling my own little open house problem too.
我也一直在与自己的开放日小问题作斗争。
But it's useless.
但这是没有用的。
I'm too ashamed to bring myself to actually walk through an open house.
我很羞愧，不敢亲自去参观开放日。
So instead, when I need to blow off a little steam, I just look through the online real estate section, at all the pictures of ornate bathroom faucets and sunny, colorful living rooms, pouring over it like it was ladies' porn.
因此，当我需要发泄一下时，我只是浏览在线房地产部分，浏览所有华丽的浴室水龙头和阳光明媚、色彩缤纷的客厅的图片，就像女士色情片一样倾倒在上面。
Diane Cook is one of the producers of our program.
黛安·库克是我们节目的制作人之一。
[MUSIC - "THAT GUY", THE FAMILY GUY]
[音乐-“那个家伙”，家庭成员]
Act Three, Mall Rat.
第三幕，商场老鼠。
And we close our program on Getting and Spending with a trip to a place where gobs of that is happening.
我们以去一个发生这种事情的地方旅行来结束我们的“获取和消费”计划。
To take us there, here's John Hodgman.
请约翰·霍奇曼带我们去那里。
Some years ago, I was a contributing editor to a national magazine of men's fitness and adventure, where I wrote about food, drink, and cheese, which is a kind of food.
几年前，我是一本全国性男性健身和冒险杂志的特约编辑，在那里我写了一些关于食物、饮料和奶酪的文章，奶酪是一种食物。
In my several years as a professional food journalist, I wrote exactly two stories the magazine refused to publish.
在我作为专业食品记者的几年里，我写了两篇该杂志拒绝发表的故事。
The first was on ultra-hot hot sauces.
第一个是超辣的辣酱。
An example of an ultra-hot hot sauce is Dave's Insanity Sauce, which I ate on a little cracker once.
超辣辣酱的一个例子是戴夫的疯狂酱，我有一次在一块小饼干上吃过它。
And then my head hurt, and then I had to lie down.
然后我的头就疼了，然后我不得不躺下。
And then I was crying for a day or so.
然后我就哭了一天左右。
Dave's is actually on the milder end of the ultra-hot hot sauce spectrum.
戴夫的实际上属于超辣辣酱系列中较温和的一端。
There is an entire category of ultra-hot hot sauces that promises death.
有一整类超辣的辣酱注定会致人死亡。
I recognize that death is a part of life.
我认识到死亡是生命的一部分。
Still, I could not bring myself to endorse death by ultra-hotness, which is perhaps why my magazine found my piece quote unquote, "overly gay."
尽管如此，我还是无法让自己认可因极度性感而死亡，这也许就是为什么我的杂志发现我的文章没有引用，“过于同性恋”。
The second article of mine that was never published was about the food court at the Mall of America.
我从未发表过的第二篇文章是关于美国购物中心的美食广场的。
I was excited to visit the nation's largest mall, but what I discovered there shocked me.
我很高兴能够参观这个全国最大的购物中心，但我在那里发现的东西却让我震惊。
It also apparently shocked my magazine, which refused to publish it on the pretense that quote, "Most of it was made up," and that quote, "It did not involve perfect abs, or sea kayaking, or the best hamburgers ever, or incredible sex tips for having sex with Jessica Alba, or the fighting of polar bears," unquote, which I knew was their nice way of saying, overly gay.
这显然也震惊了我的杂志，该杂志拒绝刊登它，借口是“大部分内容都是编造的”，以及“它不涉及完美的腹肌，或海上皮划艇，或有史以来最好的汉堡包，或与杰西卡·阿尔芭发生性关系的令人难以置信的性技巧，或北极熊的战斗”，不引用，我知道这是他们表达过度同性恋的好方式。
But you, dear listener, shall not shy from what is revealed in this, my unedited private diary of the secrets of the Mall of America with all of the made up parts intact.
但是，亲爱的听众，您不应回避这本我未经编辑的关于美国购物中心秘密的私人日记，其中所有组成部分都完好无损。
Day one, at 200 million square feet, the Mall of America is the largest mall in the United States.
第一天，美国购物中心占地 2 亿平方英尺，是美国最大的购物中心。
In addition to 520 shops, 2/3 of which are devoted to the sale of FDNY and NYPD baseball caps, it has a chapel, and a school, and a post office, and an amusement park, called Camp Snoopy, inside of it.
除了 520 家商店（其中 2/3 专门出售 FDNY 和 NYPD 棒球帽）外，它还有一座教堂、一所学校、一家邮局和一个名为史努比营 (Camp Snoopy) 的游乐园。
It is not, I should point out, the largest mall in North America.
我应该指出，它不是北美最大的购物中心。
That distinction belongs to the West Edmonton Mall in Canada, which contains 7,000 baseball cap shops, and a sausage factory, an entire medieval castle, 12 monorails, and the entire township of East Edmonton, preserved like Pompeii at the exact moment it was devoured by the West Edmonton Mall.
这一荣誉属于加拿大的西埃德蒙顿购物中心，这里有 7,000 家棒球帽商店、一家香肠工厂、一整座中世纪城堡、12 条单轨铁路，以及东埃德蒙顿的整个城镇，就像被西埃德蒙顿购物中心吞噬的庞贝古城一样保存完好。
Still, the Mall of America is large enough that I can see it from my hotel room, literally hundreds of feet away.
尽管如此，美国购物中心仍然足够大，我可以从我的酒店房间看到它，实际上距离数百英尺。
Its phosphor lights obliterate the Minnesota evening.
它的荧光粉抹去了明尼苏达的夜晚。
It is so bright, I don't know how they get the giant bats to keep circling it.
它太亮了，我不知道他们是如何让巨型蝙蝠一直围着它转的。
Day two, the Mall of America is filled with elderly people, always walking, circling the mall like sharks, they say, for exercise.
第二天，美国购物中心挤满了老年人，他们总是走路，像鲨鱼一样绕着购物中心转，他们说是为了锻炼身体。
When they collapse, mall security discreetly removes them and props them up in the booths at Johnny Rockets.
当它们倒塌时，商场保安会小心翼翼地将它们移走，并将它们支撑在约翰尼火箭队的摊位上。
One elderly woman has agreed to show me her favorite places to eat.
一位老妇人同意带我参观她最喜欢的吃饭的地方。
Her name is Elaine.
她的名字叫伊莱恩。
She takes me into the Odyssey Cafe.
她带我去了奥德赛咖啡馆。
It is a restaurant with four dining rooms, each decorated in the style of a lost civilization.
这是一家有四个餐厅的餐厅，每个餐厅都以失落文明的风格装饰。
I'm not very impressed by the Atlantis room, which is just a blue room with pictures of fish on the wall, not a single porthole, which, to me, just seems obvious.
亚特兰蒂斯房间给我的印象不是很深刻，只是一个蓝色的房间，墙上挂着鱼的照片，没有一个舷窗，对我来说，这似乎是显而易见的。
But the Machu Picchu room is stunning with beautiful murals of mountain tops and very thin air, which makes it hard to breathe.
但马丘比丘房间令人惊叹，山顶有美丽的壁画，空气非常稀薄，让人难以呼吸。
And all the hard boiled eggs are undercooked.
而且所有的煮鸡蛋都未煮熟。
Also, the room is staffed by actual Incas, looking sad and doing their sad little math with knots of string when they are not serving you omelets.
此外，房间里的工作人员都是真正的印加人，当他们不为你提供煎蛋卷时，他们看起来很悲伤，并用绳子做着悲伤的小数学。
Elaine says, this is all that remains of their once-great civilization.
伊莱恩说，这就是他们曾经伟大的文明的全部遗迹。
Day three, The Minnesota Picnic is a stand run by three brothers, all of them Egyptian.
第三天，明尼苏达野餐是由三兄弟经营的摊位，他们都是埃及人。
They serve traditional favorites of the Minnesota State Fair, pike on a stick, corn dogs on a stick, fried cheese curd, and bamya matboukha, the famous Egyptian okra stew, which unfortunately cannot be served on a stick.
他们提供明尼苏达州集市上最受欢迎的传统美食：串梭子鱼、串玉米热狗、炸奶酪凝乳，以及著名的埃及秋葵炖菜 bamya matboukha，遗憾的是不能串串。
The brothers implore me to try their new invention, deep-fried cheesecake on a stick, a stunning breakthrough in food-on-a-stick technology.
兄弟俩恳求我尝试他们的新发明，炸芝士蛋糕棒，这是棒食品技术的惊人突破。
Then they admit they are sad, sad like the Incas are sad.
然后他们承认他们很悲伤，像印加人一样悲伤。
After 10 years, the Mall of America is kicking them out, and they don't know why.
十年后，美国购物中心将他们赶了出来，但他们不知道为什么。
Suddenly, this reporter smells more than frying oil.
突然，记者闻到的不仅仅是煎炸油的味道。
He smells a story.
他闻到了故事的味道。
I ask if they think they are being discriminated against.
我问他们是否认为自己受到了歧视。
Oh no, they say, oh, no, no, no, no, no.
哦不，他们说，哦，不，不，不，不，不。
Day four, I call the mall PR people to ask why they are exiling the Egyptians and also to ask about the secret tunnel I found that leads from Camp Snoopy to Pottery Barn and is lined with human skulls.
第四天，我打电话给商场的公关人员，询问他们为什么要流放埃及人，还询问我发现的从史努比营地到陶器谷仓的秘密隧道，里面排列着人类头骨。
This is when the Mall of America stops returning my calls.
这是美国商城停止回复我的电话的时候。
It happens sometimes when professional journalists ask the wrong questions.
当专业记者提出错误的问题时，有时会发生这种情况。
I'm frozen out.
我被冻僵了。
From here on in, I'm going rogue.
从现在开始，我要变流氓了。
Day five, Elaine takes me to Cereal Adventure, which is a mini theme park run by General Mills, makers of Trix and Lucky Charms and Cookie Crisp.
第五天，伊莱恩带我去了谷物冒险乐园，这是一个由 Trix、Lucky Charms 和 Cookie Crisp 的制造商 General Mills 经营的迷你主题公园。
There is a mini golf course there, as well as an interactive exhibit on how Lucky Charms are made.
那里有一个迷你高尔夫球场，还有一个关于幸运符制作方法的互动展览。
Here it is shown how the leprechauns are first flayed and then pulped to be turned into marshmallows.
这里展示了小妖精如何首先被剥皮，然后打浆制成棉花糖。
Off to the side is a waist-high pile of abandoned little green hats that will be shipped back to Ireland under international treaty.
旁边是一堆齐腰高的废弃小绿帽子，这些帽子将根据国际条约运回爱尔兰。
"Am I the only one here who finds this a little creepy," I ask aloud.
“我是这里唯一一个觉得这有点令人毛骨悚然的人吗？”我大声问道。
Elaine ignores me.
伊莱恩不理我。
"You can have your picture taken and put on a box of Wheaties," she says.
“你可以拍照并贴在一盒小麦上，”她说。
"That's insane," I say.
“这太疯狂了，”我说。
I can't be aroused by a picture of myself.
我无法被自己的照片所唤醒。
Where are the Mary Lou Retton boxes?
玛丽·卢·雷顿的盒子在哪里？
We then go to the Cereal Adventure Cafe which claims to have all of the General Mills cereals for sale.
然后我们去了谷物冒险咖啡馆，那里声称出售所有通用磨坊谷物食品。
They have the monster cereals, Boo Berry, Count Chocula, Frankenberry.
他们有怪物麦片、Boo Berry、Count Chocula、Frankenberry。
But I am surprised to learn that they have never even heard of Fruit Brute, which featured a werewolf.
但令我惊讶的是，他们甚至从未听说过以狼人为主角的《Fruit Brute》。
They have never even heard of Yummy Mummy, who was a mummy that was fruit flavored.
他们甚至从未听说过美味木乃伊，这是一种水果味的木乃伊。
I wonder if they really have any business running a cereal adventure cafe at all.
我想知道他们是否真的有经营谷物冒险咖啡馆的业务。
Day six, my last interview is with a Minnesota woman who has just opened a pastry shop using her grandmother's original cheesecake recipe.
第六天，我最后一次采访的是一位明尼苏达州的女士，她刚刚用她祖母最初的芝士蛋糕配方开了一家糕点店。
The shop is called Granny's Squeeze Cakes.
这家店叫“奶奶挤压蛋糕”。
I ask her if she's tried the deep-fried cheesecake on a stick that the Egyptians serve at The Minnesota Picnic.
我问她是否尝试过埃及人在明尼苏达野餐会上提供的炸芝士蛋糕。
And she just smiles in a sort of sinister way that makes me think she knows that their days are numbered, and soon, she will be the cheesecake queen.
她只是以一种险恶的方式微笑，让我觉得她知道他们的日子屈指可数了，很快，她将成为芝士蛋糕女王。
Day seven, by day now, I roam the halls.
第七天，现在是白天，我在大厅里漫步。
By night, I drink from the log flume in Camp Snoopy, the water all coppery tasting from the pennies.
晚上，我从史努比营的圆木水槽里喝水，水的味道都是铜的。
I purchase nearly nothing.
我几乎什么也没买。
Commerce suddenly seems the least interesting thing about the Mall of America for I have seen its greatest attraction.
商业突然似乎是美国购物中心最无趣的事情，因为我已经看到了它最大的吸引力。
Like barnacles growing on a rock, somehow an actual living community has clung to this barren thing.
就像岩石上生长的藤壶一样，不知何故，一个真正的生命社区已经附着在这个贫瘠的东西上。
Every time I went by the Minnesota Picnic Stand, the Egyptian brothers were smiling, waving at Elaine and her fast-walking elderly cronies as they walked by, or getting some cheese curds ready for a regular, or gossiping with one of their favorite customers, an Hispanic gentleman in a puffy jacket with epaulets, who stopped working here years ago, but later told me he drove here once a week just to hang out with his old friends at the food court.
每次我路过明尼苏达野餐摊时，埃及兄弟都会微笑着，在伊莱恩和她快步走过的老朋友身边挥手致意，或者为常客准备一些奶酪凝乳，或者与他们最喜欢的顾客之一闲聊，一位身穿带有肩章的蓬松夹克的西班牙裔绅士，他几年前不再在这里工作，但后来告诉我，他每周开车来这里一次，只是为了和他的老朋友在美食广场闲逛。
I check in with one of the Egyptian brothers on my way out of the Mall of America.
在离开美国购物中心的路上，我向一位埃及兄弟报到。
"Did you ever discover why they are kicking us out?" he asks.
“你有没有发现他们为什么把我们赶出去？”他问道。
"No," I say, "the mall officials are stonewalling me." "I have gone rogue," I explain.
“不，”我说，“购物中心的官员正在阻止我。” “我变得无赖了，”我解释道。
And he nods as only a sad Egyptian about to lose his deep-fried palace at the Mall of America can nod.
他点点头，只有一个即将失去美国购物中心油炸宫殿的悲伤埃及人才能点头。
"Perhaps this is for the best," he says.
“也许这是最好的，”他说。
As I go, he gives me something fried on a stick, and I promise to eat it someday.
当我走的时候，他给了我一些炸在棍子上的东西，我答应有一天会吃它。
But for him and for me, the Minnesota Picnic is over.
但对他和我来说，明尼苏达野餐已经结束了。
John Hodgman.
约翰·霍奇曼。
A version of his story about the Mall of America appears in his book The Areas of My Expertise.
他关于美国购物中心的故事的一个版本出现在他的书《我的专业领域》中。
The paperback edition is out this month.
平装本本月出版。
Well, our program was produced today by Sarah Koenig and myself with Alex Blumberg, Diane Cook, Jane Feltes, Amy O'Leary, and Lisa Pollak.
好吧，我们今天的节目是由莎拉·科尼格（Sarah Koenig）和我本人以及亚历克斯·布伦伯格（Alex Blumberg）、黛安·库克（Diane Cook）、简·费尔特斯（Jane Feltes）、艾米·奥利里（Amy O'Leary）和丽莎·波拉克（Lisa Pollak）制作的。
Our senior producer is Julie Snyder.
我们的高级制片人是朱莉·斯奈德。
Elizabeth Meister runs our website.
伊丽莎白·梅斯特 (Elizabeth Meister) 负责运营我们的网站。
Production help from Todd Bachmann, Chris Ladd, Seth Lind, Steven January, and Cathy Hoang.
Todd Bachmann、Chris Ladd、Seth Lind、Steven January 和 Cathy Hoang 为制作提供帮助。
Special thanks today to Dan Pipski.
今天特别感谢丹·皮普斯基。
Our website www.thisamericanlife.org, where you can listen to our programs for absolutely free or buy CDs of them.
我们的网站 www.thisamericanlife.org，您可以在其中完全免费收听我们的节目或购买节目 CD。
Or you know you can download today's program and our archives at audible.com/thisamericanlife.
或者您知道可以在 audible.com/thisamericanlife 下载今天的节目和我们的档案。
This American Life is distributed by Public Radio International.
《美国生活》由国际公共广播电台发行。
[FUNDING CREDITS] WBEZ management oversight for our program by Mr. Torey Malatia, who is constantly trying to buy me out of my contract here.
[资金来源] Torey Malatia 先生对 WBEZ 项目进行管理监督，他一直试图解除我在这里的合同。
Why don't we just write you a check, and you can shut up and go home.
我们为什么不给你写一张支票，然后你就可以闭嘴回家了。
I'm Ira Glass.
我是艾拉·格拉斯。
Back next week.
下周回来。
Until then.
直到那时。
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。