The Newtown Pentacle

Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Since one has completed his vaccinations against the Covid scourge, very little dust has had a chance to settle upon a humble narrator. I’ve caroused in bars, ridden subways and ferries, gone places, done things. Seemingly, I’ve developed a truly calloused attitude towards other people’s stupidity and anti-social tendencies. You don’t want to get vaccinated because you heard somebody got sick from it in California, huh? Well, it was nice knowing you, and you should probably have a conversation with your Doctor. “I shit you not” when saying that I personally witnessed a negotiation and transaction take place for a counterfeit vaccination card recently. It was just so dumb. This is how Zombie movies start, and this is what the world has looked like to me for the last year and change.

Remember when half of your third grade class died of Rubella? How about when little Timmy down the block ended up in the iron lung? The time you lost your sister to Smallpox? Tuberculosis took your Mom? Measles? Whooping cough? Scarlet Fever? Exactly. Go get your shot.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The only way out of dealing with all of this is clearly pursuing my dream of birthing a race of Atomic Supermen, but my neighborhood in Astoria isn’t zoned for “Mad Science.” NYC is quite strict on this subject, and it’s overseen by the same City Hall department that handles restaurant inspections for some reason. There’s several properties in the South Bronx which are promising for the endeavor, but negotiating the lease has been a chore. There’s a great location that already has Tesla coils and lightning gathering kites installed, but $55 per square foot is highway robbery for industrial space.

Of course, one of the tasks I’m going to assign my army of Atomic Supermen is going to be literal “highway robbery,” but start-ups need to worry about pissing away their initial capitalization on fancy offices and other gimmicks. The only thing other than gestation tubes and a DNA sequencer I’m going to be buying for the factory will be a big fan, one that turns slowly, and will be positioned in front of a bright light that cycles through primary colors in my surprisingly wet and dark Atomic Superman factory. Also, there’s going to be chains hanging down from the roof that have no true purpose.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Back in Astoria, yet another FDNY operation drew my attentions. It seems that two automobile drivers caused a low speed collision. One of the drivers, I’m told, demanded that 911 be called and an EMS Ambulance crew arrived to assess and handle the situation. Nobody was loaded onto a stretcher or anything, so it’s fairly obvious that the driver was hoping for the cops to show up rather than the Fire Department when they called 911.

Everybody loves Firemen and Fireladies and Firenonbinarynongenderconforming people. Nobody wants to defund the Fire Department. Personally, I’ve always wanted to be there when one of those cinematic style Cop vs. Fireman fights break out, but no luck.

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“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.