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Tag Archives: The Redemption Unit
Curses! No More Cursive!!
From our Late to the Party desk First, full disclosure: The hardwriting staff’s penmanship is a total mess, thanks to filling out thousands of Social Security Administration forms in the mid-’70s to get welfare recipients off the hook for overpayments … Continue reading
We’re Number 410,102!!
The mainstream media are all a-Twitter over the decision by Pope Benedict XVI to Vati-tweet the faithful. From Tuesday’s New York Times: Twitter Has a New User: The Pope VATICAN CITY — Now trending on Twitter: Pope Benedict XVI. On Monday, the Vatican announced … Continue reading
The Redemption Unit (Complete Edition)
The Redemption Unit, that zany tale of hijinx and humanity in a 1970s Boston SSI office (previously serialized in this space), is now available in one convenient, well, unit. Ask for it by name.
The Redemption Unit, VIII
(Previously on The Redemption Unit: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII) The CRTs started drifting off one by one. In some cases they found better jobs; in others they just couldn’t face another claimant. Either way their caseloads, as the claimants were known collectively, migrated … Continue reading
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Tagged A Modest Analogy, Free Nameless News, Loony Squad, Miss Havisham, Prince High, SSA, The Redemption Unit
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The Redemption Unit, VII
(Previously on The Redemption Unit: I, II, III, IV, V, VI) Pay It Backward When the last claimant’s benefits had been redetermined and the government added up its losses, it immediately decided to recoup them by initiating the Overpayment Recovery Program. Letters went out – … Continue reading
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Tagged overpayments, Pay It Backward, Social Security Administration, SSI, The Redemption Unit
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Doing Good Before Doing Well
In these parlous economic times, college graduates are turning toward public service jobs to tide them over until private sector jobs bounce back. From Wednesday’s New York Times: In 2009 alone, 16 percent more young college graduates worked for the … Continue reading
The Redemption Unit, VI
(See I, II, III, IV and V) It was something to be in Boston that summer. The spirit of ’76 was everywhere, from the massive fireworks displays on the Esplanade to the stately procession of Tall Ships into Boston harbor to the red-white-and-blue redecoration … Continue reading
The Redemption Unit, V
(See I, II, III, and IV) Interlude My nom de plume in The Free Nameless News was J. Redmond Tardi, largely because I was late for work all the time. Part of the reason was that I took public (as … Continue reading
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Tagged Hi-Lo Foods, Hyde Square, SSA, SSI, The Fireball, The Redemption Unit
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The Redemption Unit, IV
(Earlier episodes here) Act IV: The Free Nameless News The Free Nameless News started out as The Nameless News and cost 10¢ per issue. Vol. 1, No. 1 included a detailed account of Woodrow Wilson’s first foray into the Boston … Continue reading
The Redemption Unit, III
(The Redemption Unit Act One and Act Two) Act Three: Woodrow Wilson’s League of Notions There was a union steward at the Boston DO who would end almost every conversation by saying, “Let he who is not without sin cast … Continue reading
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Tagged Boston District Office, Social Security, SSI, The Redemption Unit
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