Author Archives: A garrett renter on Welbeck St.

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”

“Jesus. Are you going to go look?” “Number one, Anders, I’m supposed to remind you that in keeping with the august guidelines of our whoever the fuck is supposed to care about this shit, you’re not supposed to take the Lord’s name in vain. Not because the state gives a fat rat’s ass which particularContinue reading “Chapter 2”

Everyman awoke from his nap with a start. Something wasn’t quite right. He couldn’t quite put it his finger on it — not because of the bleariness of sleep, since he always awoke from these early-afternoon 20 minute catnaps refreshed and eager to meet whatever challenges the rest of the day might bring — butContinue reading “Chapter 1”

I could have guessed that I would have to wear a mask, even for simple everyday transactions (picking up paychecks, buying coffee, buying groceries, chit-chatting with the boss’s secretary, securing another quart of bourbon, the usual stuff). I would not have guessed that my own personal sense of the fall of the empire would comeContinue reading “So this is how the end times arrive”

A George Floyd protest rally is occurring two blocks from my house. It is 1:30 a.m., the ghettobirds are circling, “fireworks” are being detonated, I can’t sleep, and what am I doing to calm my nerves? Watching it be live-streamed on my computer while I blog. This world is bizarre for many reasons, but surelyContinue reading “Mediated r(e)all(t)y”

Everything I’m about to say has, of course, already been said. By someone more or less articulate than I. Quite apart from the malfeasance, the naked corruption of the current administration, quite apart from all the attendant death and pain they have brought about through their depraved stupidity, quite apart from all that what IContinue reading “The brutality of Corona time”

I have an appointment with a coin dealer tomorrow, to appraise (and very possibly, liquidate) the coins that have been bequeathed me by my grandparents. Let us leave aside for the moment the fact that my parents have been paying rent on four(!) safe deposit boxes for…well, let’s just say the better part of aContinue reading “The line between sentiment and neuroticism is neither bright nor sharp”

So I deaccessioned the first installment of my grandmother’s coin collection today. This installment consisted of a red toolbox filled to the brim with quarters. Forty-eight rolls of quarters (various statehood commemoratives), plus several dozen little Ziploc bags. Three thousand quarters, plus a few Susan B. Anthonys, several Sacagaweas, and four rolls of nickels. That’sContinue reading “Liquidating patriotism”