Happy New Year! Don’t worry. I’m not going to write about the coming apocalypse. What is occasioning this month’s column is a recent email from Ripley Whiteside, a wonderful studio assistant I had last year, who left for a full-time job but offered to continue helping via the net. I have been putting off hiring his replacement because I knew I’d be away on tour soon, and didn’t want to cause a gap in a new-hire’s employment. But beyond that civic concern, internally, the requirements of my multiple projects have been growing so complex that just doing it all myself trumped the dread of explaining and overseeing, at least until I get back (more later). That led to thinking about the nature of the job itself and also to doing a little research in my Archives.