Jacob McArthur Mooney recently wrote The New Layman's Almanac. He is also an editor at Thieves Jargon.

EVERYDAY YEAH: I was
wondering if you'd want to do an interview for EDY, kind of go along with the
book.  Let me know.

Jacob McArthur Mooney: Sure, not a problem.

So, with your
dedication to Puckett at the end of your book and the mention of the Blue Jays
I have the suspicion that you didn't care for the Braves in the early
90's. Also, Canada's been hit real hard
sports wise the last couple years: the hockey getting locked out, the expos
jumping off ship, and Toronto having a tough go at it.

There's a poem in the book called "A Guide to
Sabermetrics" that explains why I can't follow baseball anymore. Though I
did go see a Jays game last month. As for the Braves, I remember making fun of
that stupid "karate-chopping-Native-American" thing A LOT back in the
day.
It's sad that there's no Expos. But Montrealers can’t be trusted to support
anything that's not on skates. The hot ticket in Toronto now is the soccer
team, TFC. Plus, it looks like we'll be eventually getting the Bills. Though
that'll hurt the Canadian Football League, which is probably my favourite thing
going right now. But there's always action on the frozen tundra. The
people need something to keep them occupied between curling seasons.

That's pretty cool
you were in the first issue of Zygote in my Coffee.  What have you been
reading lately?  I'm reading some William T. Vollman right now.  Have
you heard of him?  Are you ever going to do a book talk in Boston so Matt
DiGangi and I can heckle you?

I don't know who William T Vollman is but I'm sure he's a
good guy. I'm (re-)reading Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the
Kid. The last thing I read for the first time was Sweet Ruin, by Tony Hoaglund.
I read it this morning, in one sitting, with a hangover, on my friend's couch
while his cat played with my socks. Hoaglund probably wins the prize for the
best mainstream contemporary American poet.
I need to go to Boston soon. I basically learned to read by studying Robert
Parker's Boston-set detective novels, so I need to go and survey the
territory that's so viscerally described in those books.  I spent a
third of my year near Scranton, Pennsylvania, so you'd think I'd be able to
make the trip northeast to Mass.

How close are you to
finishing up your MFA?  How's the thesis/book going?  Can we expect
something else from you in the next year?

Very close. I should be done next month. I had a blast with
this MFA. I was somebody who had a lot of hang-ups about that whole culture but
it turns out I was an idiot to think that taking a 2 year vacation from the
real world with a community of like-minded peers would be anything but awesome.
I can't really speak for other people's MFA experiences but mine (at the
University of Guelph at Humber) was incredible, and likely helped by the
newness of it (I'm going to be in the first-ever graduating class, so there's
no pre-constructed local "aesthetic" to have to work with/around) and
the plethora of teachers there who were hired because they were great writers,
not because they were respected academics who also wrote books.
My thesis is in poetry, I think it's looking pretty good. Its starting point is
the 1998 crash of Swissair Flight 111 in the Atlantic Ocean a few miles from my
house in Nova Scotia. The theme, I guess, is the anguishes and joys of being a
product of a rural environment,and how a place that revels in it smallness, its
quaintness, deals with being forced into something dramatic and global in
scope. I'm also writing a novel on the side. All I can say about it for now is
that it's set in a religious commune and a major character is the current Prime
Minister of Canada.

That novel sounds
funny.  The thesis sounds like some deep, serious shit.  How'd you
pick the University of Guelph?  Did you apply elsewhere?  You wear
glasses right?  How about contacts?  I'm wearing contacts for the
first time in two months and I just put on my glasses before I read your last
email.  Everything went blurry.  Not that it's important.  So
now, the question that everyone you know and every family member have been
asking since you began your last year of college, WHAT'S NEXT for the big JMM?

I'm a glasses fan. Real men are proud of their glasses. I
can't get into contacts, they make me feel like I'm wrapped in cellophane. I
thought a lot about applying to some of the midwest schools. I never actually
went so far as to writing the GRE and going for it, but I was thinking about
Minn or maybe IU. Guelph was the only one I applied for.
As for what's next. I dunno. If someone wants to give me a worthwhile job, I'll
follow that. Assuming that doesn't happen, I'm looking forward to being
blissfully unattached in a few months time, able to go do what I want where I
want. I'll probably head back to Toronto, though I want to spend some time
supporting the Almanac book, maybe head home to the east coast and do some
readings. I'm open to any specifics.

I just took out my contacts
and became a real man. Things I suggest
you do: Eat, Sleep, Shower, Brush your teeth, go to the bathroom, and maybe mow
your lawn (you might not have one of these). That's all I can think of right now.  If I think of anything else
I'll let you know. You had a quote from
Lester Bangs at the beginning of your book.  What would you say to him if
you dug up his corpse and found him still alive when you opened the casket
(besides the shocked you're-supposed-to-be-dead comments)?

I'm not sure I'd exactly try and build a friendship with the
dude, he was something of a serial wanker. Also, I wouldn't want to answer any
questions about the epigraph, as he'd probably start demanding huge sums of
money as payment for his words. Probably what would happen is he'd ask if he
was more or less famous than Hunter S Thompson and I'd have to say, you know: Sorry, you're still a lot less
famous than Thompson so then he'd get pissed and ask to be reburied
until a day arrives when it's at least a close contest.

Who is the Hunter S
Thompson to your Lester Bangs?  I don't think that made sense.  Who
would you like to become more famous than before you die?  I can see how
you might not want to answer this question, so instead, how many books do you
want to have written by the time you pass away?

Yep. I don't really want to answer that first question. As
for the second one, I don't know. I haven't really given it any thought. All I
want from any individual book is for it to provide me with the permission to do
another. All I'm after is the gift of participation.

Are you ever worried
your creative process will someday get switched off?  How would you
interpret yours?  Do a lot of ideas come to you while you're in the
shower?  Where does television fit into all of this?  Does it even
exist in your life?

I'm not worried about it. I can go for a while without
writing. Prolificacy is one thing that makes me feel really homeless, either in
the mainstream community or in the (you should make fun of me for using this
upcoming expression) the "underground" poetry scene. Because I'm
looked on as someone who works too slow among the latter and as someone who
is particularly prolific among the former. I can completely deal with not
writing, though I feel better about the world when I am. And yes, television factors in my life. I am
watching "Robot Chicken" as I write this.

Mr. Mooney, I think
we hit on a lot pretty good topics.  Is there anything else you'd like to
add?

Give in, Hillary. Obama/Kucinich 2008