This week about the same... about 15 new jobs.  Really wondering when the job market will pick up its pace.  Frankly very worried that it won't.  Also, it appears that it is not a particularly good year for my sub-specialty, and *really* not a good year for my sub-sub-specialty.  I was talking today with a friend of mine who had the good fortune to land a job last year and she informed me that I should be paying particular attention to job descriptions because your publications for tenure are only good insofar as they comply with the job description set out for you when you were hired.  This is a good thing to know, and it will probably keep me from applying for the jobs with less-than-tenuous associations with my own personal area of research.

Word-of-mouth says that many schools are bypassing the MLA this year because it is too expensive, and will be focusing their efforts on phone interviews starting in spring 2010.  Makes sense.  God, don't I hope that's true!!!!  (I'm not so bad at phone interviews... I even dress up for them in my professional duds, not that they can see me.  I just need to set the tone...)