Author Archives: A garrett renter on Welbeck St.

Sometimes you just have to get away for a day or so. I ostensibly have a real engagement tomorrow, up here in the wilds of Northern California. A sub-committee meeting of the commune to which I belong. An event that, if all goes well, will be as boring as all sub-committee meetings ever and alwaysContinue reading “Fine dining in Superior California”

So, the Didion estate sale was this week. It was, according to New York magazine (actually in two different sections, natch), the Paris Review, the LA Times, hell even the fecking Guardian, a somewhat astonishing frenzy-blend of hagiography, money, envy, and feminism. Did I bid on something? Yes. Was I prepared to pay even aContinue reading “The Veblenesque orgy of the estate sale”

You’re sitting at home, and there’s nothing to drink — because your spouse took the last of box white up to bed — so you break out the limoncello and have it with soda water? You know that time? You know that lemony taste that you only get with certain very specific brands of chocolateContinue reading “You know that time when…”

We went to visit my parents this weekend. They live on a hippie commune in what could generously be described as “timber country” but should more accurately be termed “methland.” Our time there was on-brand. We drove three hours so that we could sit around in an apple orchard, eat fabulous cheese and partake ofContinue reading “Further adventures in far Northern California”

I have, basically, recovered. My spouse is sick, however. And my younger son coughed a little and complained of a headache after dinner. My parents are white-water rafting in Oregon at the moment, along with a cousin and my niece and nephew. There being no cell service, there is perforce no comfort or advice toContinue reading “Day 3 of isolation”

Here’s the thing we always forget about illness: it’s boring, and it’s tedious. The dread of it, no so much. That involves a lot of cortisol, and ultimately (if it goes on too long) the kind of numbing hangover that comes with too much stimulation. But the thing itself? Boring as all hell. And asContinue reading “Day 2 of Isolation”

I hope she has joy in it.

A friend from college — no, that’s not right. A friend who went to the same university as I did, and with whom I became friends later, recently sent me a podcast. As one does. “One” here meaning “not me” because I would never send someone a podcast. I’d lend them a book, sure. ButContinue reading “Writing and booze”

I used to go two-stepping, back when I lived in Boston. I loved it while I did it, and remember fondly the evenings I so spent. My pleasure in that activity was contingent upon several premises, perhaps least among them the fact that the activity was explicitly and deliberately tobacco and alcohol-free (the organizers includedContinue reading “Problematizing Pleasure”

I was chatting with a colleague of mine at work. Someone who would probably in other circumstances even be a friend. But the exigencies of bureaucracy being what they are, this isn’t really the done thing. In any case, we were chatting about our sense of vocation. He has, for a variety of reasons, hadContinue reading “The curse of a liberal arts education, part 2”