Author Archives: A garrett renter on Welbeck St.

Near the end of Half a Yellow Sun, the heroine crosses over enemy lines to procure food and medicine for her family, their bellies distended with kwashiorker. They are a privileged family; part of the tragedy of the story is her own disbelief that these children could be deformed by what is, classically, a diseaseContinue reading “There’s a glimmer of light”

So, after all the policies have been redeemed, bills paid, accounts liquidated, and checks cashed, what remains of a life? Furniture, and pictures. Lots, and lots of pictures. As it happens, my grandmother loved to take photographs. Kodaks, polaroids, you name it. And she kept them — all of her childrens’ school photos, all ofContinue reading “What remains”

So a thought occurred to me, during a recent webcast call with some colleagues from work. The platform doesn’t matter; we’ll call it Zoom for the moment, though for the record that is actually the one platform I am not allowed to use at work. What happened was this: I was the only one onContinue reading “What is Zoom, really, but a Houellebecquian nightmare?”

What a pretty pass we have come to, when I cannot summon up from the depths of my ostensibly Christian soul even a modicum of sympathy for a man who faces a 5-8 times higher rate ratio of hospitalization than someone in their 20s if he actually contracts this disease. What a failure on myContinue reading “So. The president just went into quarantine.”

A couple years ago we held a get-together at our house for the the families at our sons’ day-care. We did it in part as payback for the quite lovely get-together that had just then recently been hosted by the parents of a graduating kindergartner of Chinese heritage and an Old Testament given name. ThisContinue reading “What will be left, after the wreckage burns and all that remains is refuse and memories?”

Every time I go up to the place where my parents live, I think “my God, it’s beautiful.” I also think, “my God, there’s fuck-all to do.” Every time I tell people stories about the place where my parents live, at some point or other they usually say some version, “my god, it sounds awful.”Continue reading ““Baby””

I had this realization the other day (actually today, if we’re being honest) that part of the issue with face masks is that it involves a symbolic — which is to say, real — admission of equality in the face of the pandemic, and of social others. What do I mean by that? I meanContinue reading “The subtle dance of face-mask as status marker”

How, precisely, does one say with a straight face at staff meeting “oh, by the way, did anybody happen to go over to the third floor last week? Like either Thursday or Friday? Just checking. For, you know, confidential reasons. No need to panic.” Yeah, no need to panic. I have already informed those thatContinue reading “The gathering storm”

I drank. Rose mostly, but also vermouth. An aside here: one of the more amazing moments of my graduate school career involved an elaborate scheme whereby the gay student group “sponsored” a conference on bisexuality. This was a fig leaf so that the bisexuals — who in truth had very little connection to the universityContinue reading “Daddy? What did you do during the plague?”

The ‘rona is surging again. As we could have guessed when we decided to value profit over life. I.e., as we could have guessed back in….oh, 1619. Have we ever behaved in a way that did not value profit over life? All those pretty, petty, beautiful, twisted souls living in places like Florida and TexasContinue reading “Darkness visible”