It's reassuring for me, as a writer, to know that if all else fails and my entire career crumbles to pieces, I can always survive by selling Slate literally any story about anything I have ever done. I can derive an entirely new income stream for a period of time equal to the length of my entire writing career, by writing thousands of new stories recounting each individual day of my career, and the exciting—or unexciting—lessons I learned, or did not learn. It doesn't matter that that would be pointless; "pointlessness" is a concept that does not translate to the internet. We're living in a post-pointless era. Enjoy it.

The who: 24 year-old aspiring media person Katherine Goldstein. The what: applied for a job at the Huffington Post. The when: 2008. The where: glamorous Manhattan, The Big Apple, NY. And then what happened?

The editor, Colin, who'd set up the meeting, kept in phone contact with me, informing me that Arianna was running a little late, and that when I was looking for her, I should know that Arianna was taller in person than I might imagine. (True.) The plan was to do the interview in her town car as she was driven from her meeting to a luncheon. Also, she had a CNBC film crew with her, so she would be sort of easy to spot.

And then what happened?

"Can we mic you?" he asked gruffly. They were filming everything Arianna did that day.

Arianna looked at me. I realized the only answer was yes.

And then what happened?

She did ask, [standard job interview question]

I answered something like: [standard job interview question answer]

She liked that.

And then what happened?

"Katherine, you are fabulous. You're hired!" She beamed at me, and she beamed at the camera. I beamed right back.

And then what happened?

"Come to the luncheon with me," she offered. "It will be great!"

[Goes to luncheon]

And then what happened?

I watched [the CNBC segment] at the office when it aired, and I could barely breathe. I was relieved they didn't include any of my answers. The story, of course, was about Arianna. I was just a flicker across the screen.

And then what happened?

[Slate]