Adrian Spratt

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Fairness During a Pandemic

February 22, 2021

i I’m about to have life-saving surgery, but the hospital’s administration refused to ensure I get both COVID-19 doses ahead of time. I meet New York State’s vaccination eligibility requirements. They do say the wing where I’ll be staying is

The Reptile in the Capital

February 2, 2021

A member of my writing group recently sought to defend a character for blaming his bad behavior on a woman character’s provocative clothes: “He’s obviously mad at her for the sequined dress stunt, but shouldn’t he be?” "That doesn't justify rape,"

Disconnects

February 2, 2021

Why do I suddenly think of that chilly Boston evening forty or so years ago? A friend of mine named Tim and I were visiting a married couple, friends of his. She played hostess while her husband stayed glued to his recording of Mozart’s Marriage of

Young at Heart

January 19, 2021

“The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.” That’s the Lord Henry Wotton character speaking in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey. I think of my father who, as he approached ninety, insisted he felt no different

The Third Reason

January 8, 2021

A white woman friend was recently on the subway when a black man sat next to her with his mask lowered just below his nose. A senior citizen who takes every precaution to avoid infection from COVID-19, she stood and walked to an empty seat at the

Magic Moment

December 24, 2020

One serene early spring evening, I was walking with my white cane on a path through the Amherst College campus when I encountered the author, Robert Stone. I was taking a course of his, albeit not for credit and I’d never spoken a word in class. It

The Maligned City

November 20, 2020

Lately, members of my Zoom writing group, most of whom live in the western United States, have been dumping on New York City. One has created a character who deems New Yorkers rude and always insisting on having the last word. Another cited the Kitty

Planet Pluto, Society and Civilization

November 10, 2020

Poor Pluto: reclassified from planet to mere ice body. Does Pluto care? It’s still a heavenly body, and it seems to have been content these past several billion years to keep pushing along the rim of the solar system. No, it’s people who care. A

Bear Carrying a Dolphin

November 10, 2020

Transcript of the annual meeting held by the shareholder residents of the 126-unit cooperative apartment building at 666 Toussaint Avenue. The meeting began with presentations by the Chairs of the Finance, Planning, Rules and Admissions Committees in

Justice in a Time of Coronavirus

October 30, 2020

A friend of mine committed a crime and is now confined in a so-called "minimum security federal prison camp" that is experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak. My friend's crime was failing to file certain disclosure documents with the Securities and

Say It Nice: A Polite-English Phrasebook

October 20, 2020

To all our Associates: Herewith, we list some commonly used polite phrases to assist our public relations, political consulting, healthcare and customer service associates. It's crucially important that you understand their precise import. They

Dissenting Voices

September 30, 2020

1 I've witnessed with anxiety the outpouring of emotions surrounding the protests after George Floyd's death and the re-arousal of the Black Lives Matter movement. I confess I've found myself thinking, why can't you put all that anger aside, however

The King and the Dutchman

August 14, 2020

In some eras, lies of omission and commission are matters of career and even personal survival: the Spanish inquisition, communist and fascist totalitarianism, America's McCarthy era, today's Iran or Saudi Arabia. And now today's America, where fear

Twilight of the Dystopians (Revised)

July 30, 2020

Note: I'm re-posting this April 13, 2017 essay after deleting several superfluous passages. I haven't updated it in any way, except for an endnote, so that the feeling of that time and the fear it implies for 2020 remain intact. To demonstrate

Empathy

July 17, 2020

Thursday evening two weeks ago, I had an upsetting experience with my writers' group. No one said anything deliberately hurtful, and there was no horrible argument. The members are generous in spirit and with their constructive comments. Knowing I

Advice

July 9, 2020

Ever noticed how we can't complain without giving each other advice? "The way I'm eating in this pandemic, I'm going to turn into a beached whale." — Don't you exercise? — "Like I told you, I have a stationary bike." — Oh right, what you

The Criminal Receptionist

June 25, 2020

Antonia, a warm, famously doe-eyed woman in her thirties, was one of three receptionists at my former law office. Their long desk was in an area accessible to members of the public, while the rest of us worked safely behind code-locked doors. We

The First Stone

April 29, 2020

On Easter Sunday, a neighbor sent me the following email: Just wanted to let you know that [my husband] came down with little sniffles yesterday. We thought it may be just allergies, but it didn’t go away after he took his allergy meds. He doesn’t

James Bond and the Errant Shrubs

March 27, 2020

My intrepid friend, Neil, likes to read books about intrepid adventurers. Subscribers to this blog have met Neil (not his real name) before in my account of an awkward party. Late one Saturday afternoon last month, he headed to the pub to finish

Eyam

March 19, 2020

In the depths of England's Great Plague of 1665-1666, the Derbyshire village of Eyam isolated itself in order not to spread the infection to other villages. Eyam (pronounced "Eem") is situated in the county of Derbyshire, a few miles south of

Accommodation: A Story

March 19, 2020

Wordgathering has published my story, "Accommodation," in its current issue. Here's the link: https://wordgathering.com/vol14/issue1/fiction/spratt/    

Lincoln Should Have Let the South Go

February 14, 2020

I have long wished the Confederate states had been allowed to secede. My reservation is that secession would have prolonged slavery. Although I have read arguments that even in an independent South, slavery couldn't have endured, the institution

Mutual Aid Society

February 6, 2020

To his surprise, my friend Neil was recently invited to a former neighbor's housewarming party at her new home. Neil's vision, never great, has deteriorated in recent years. He took a taxi there and was greeted at the door by the host, his former

Equal Opportunity

January 30, 2020

I was honored this week when The New Yorker printed a version of a letter I submitted in response to an article discussing the enigmatic notion of equality. You can read the published version of my letter here. It's impossible for me to read that

The Headmaster’s Letter

January 23, 2020

I have just learned of a touching act of generosity by the headmaster of a school I attended long ago. For logistical reasons, and possibly also for cultural ones, it would be neither possible nor needed today. In July 1967, I completed my second

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Disclaimer

A lawyer can hardly resist an opportunity for a disclaimer or two. No statement on this website constitutes or is intended as legal advice. Also, resemblance of any person, living or otherwise, to any of my fictional characters is strictly coincidental. Even in my nonfiction, names have been changed and biographical details altered, and often traits of several people are combined into a single character. The exceptions, apart from myself, are inescapably my parents and brother, and I can only hope I’ve done them justice. Any other exceptions are noted.
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