Adrian Spratt

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To a Friendship

March 2, 2017

The last time I was in the same room with Victor, at a college reunion, we avoided each other. I could hardly blame him. I’d failed to return his calls. But then, he’d stood me up not once, but twice. Victor (all names here are pseudonyms) and I

Resisting Kafka

June 22, 2017

1 I’m walking up a busy avenue toward a famous intersection. Pausing at the quiet cross-street just before it, I think maybe I should turn left to avoid being noticed. But that’s paranoia speaking. I press on. At the famous intersection, I go to

Twilight of a Stock Broker

June 30, 2017

Finally a novel has been given mainstream publication that has a principal blind character and is written by a blind author. Edward Hoagland’s In the Country of the Blind appeared late last year, but became available in audio only recently. Because I

Legacy of a Cat

July 6, 2017

Fifty years ago this month, my parents told my brother and me that we were to emigrate to the United States in November. Within weeks, our cat Monty, who had been on this earth two years longer than me, died. He didn’t die in order to become a symbol

The Elephant in the Room

April 5, 2018

The story of the blind men and the elephant regularly comes up in news analysis, such as when the author or presenter is claiming that someone’s perspective is too narrow. Few people know the end of the story as it seems it was originally told. I

Remembrance of a Banker

January 18, 2018

Is it possible to like your banker? If any writer can make finance interesting, it’s Ron Chernow, author of the celebrated Alexander Hamilton (2004). One way he worked his magic in an earlier book on the history of finance was to assign it a title

Idyll

December 14, 2017

The blue sky arched high, and the yellow of forsythias dotted the hedged fields. Mark had trekked for hours. When he paused near a hut at the side of the lane, an old man came out and said, “Going far?” Mark leaned on the shepherd's crook he’d

A Coat of Varnish

April 20, 2017

Catchphrases separate the generations. That they do so seems arbitrary and unfortunate. Everything that causes friction between generations is unfortunate. As a boy in London, I’d ask my father, “What’s up?” and he’d reply acidly, “The sky.” If he

Twilight of the Dystopians

April 13, 2017

A breeze insinuates itself through open windows into a warm room. On the stereo, Anne Sofie von Otter sings the song cycle, Frauenliebe und Leben (A Woman’s Life and Love). I am content. An evening listening to German lieder occurs rarely. I can’t

Journalism and Disability

April 6, 2017

Media coverage of visually impaired people can distress their subjects. One reason might be that visually impaired people disagree among themselves about the best ways to write and talk about their experiences and how they feel they’re perceived by

Libby Speaks: 5. Hypocrisy

March 30, 2017

Tina Millette waltzed into Council Member Gavin Kane’s office, as usual, without knocking. “There’s an item in the Gazette about Max Morano’s mother having gone through a successful course of treatment for colon cancer at the Baltic Creek Hospital.

Libby Speaks: 6. Balancing Acts

March 30, 2017

“One more state to go to a constitutional convention.” So proclaimed Republican Council Member Max Morano’s latest tweet. Having read it, Gavin Kane, his Democratic counterpart, summoned his chief of staff, Tina Millette. “What’s he getting at

Libby Speaks: 4. Plastic Bags

March 17, 2017

Republican City Council Member Max Morano was taking a Diet Coke break with Irma Jansen, his chief of staff. “I can’t believe the Democrats passed the plastic bag ban. Totally counterproductive. The plastic bags I take home with me from the

Libby Speaks: 3. The Squeaky Wheel

March 17, 2017

Tina Millette told her boss, Council Member Gavin Kane, that a constituent was making life difficult in the public area of their district office. “I can hear the shouting in here,” Gavin said. “What does he think this is? Democracy?” “He says

Libby Speaks: 2. Sex Matters

March 17, 2017

Council Member Gavin Kane, Democrat, was incensed. Max Morano and his Republicans had vowed to fight a proposed law to make sexual harassment a firing offense. Gavin signed into his Twitter account. “Once again, Max Morano stands in the way of

The Strawberry Statement

December 22, 2016

On January 21, Donald Trump is going to look down from his high tower, in whichever dimension it may be, on the women marching in protest against his assault on civility and think to himself, “Melania and Ivanka look a whole lot better than these

Tricks of Memory

December 1, 2016

The tricks memory plays on us are not always cruel. For decades, I thought I remembered a lush Italian garden from a book of Aldous Huxley stories that a high school girlfriend liked to read aloud to me. It wasn’t an image, let alone an idea. It was

The Cathedral Town

April 14, 2016

What is it about those small cathedral towns, which in England are by definition cities, no matter how tiny? Recalling those idealized places of perpetually mild weather and well-mannered people brings peace of mind. I’m hardly alone. The small

Rasp

March 31, 2016

A rasp, also known as creaky voice, also known as vocal fry, has become widespread. It didn’t use to be, which suggests that in most cases it isn’t caused by vocal cord affliction. Instead, it’s become fashionable. Unfortunately, it’s also been made

How Can We Talk About Race? Thoughts Based on How We Talk About Disability

January 7, 2016

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is quoted in the December 10 edition of the New York Times as saying: “I don’t think it stands to reason that it’s a good thing for the University of Texas to admit as many blacks as possible.” He went on to say

Compliments

October 22, 2015

It can be hard to take a compliment gracefully. Sometimes we feel undeserving. Other times we wonder if we are being manipulated. There are times we feel a compliment is discordant with our actual achievement, such as when veterans of recent wars

An Oral History Experience

July 16, 2015

Last week I recorded a version of my life story for a New York Public Library oral history project, an experience that caused me to think about how we communicate who we are. (The recordings are being posted here, and I assume mine will be sometime

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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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