I went through a similar exerience when the Cold War ended and I was layed off as a Silicon Valley software engineer for 15 months. I had to burn through half my life savings, sell all my furniture, and move across the continent to find a job doing similar work at 40% my prior salary. And I was one of the lucky ones, I was in my mid-forties, out of debt, had no kids, and the economy wasn't in the shape its in today.

"STOP sending former Space Center employees," one employer wrote to Brevard Workforce, the local job agency, in a comment included in its monthly committee report. "They have an unrealistic salary expectation."

"Unrealistic salary expectation", eh? That's priceless.