Annotations for Investment Banking in Reverse

by Eric Nelson

p. 187 “roofless warehouse floor”* In 1966, Nutmegs lead singer Leroy Griffin died at his job at an umbrella factory under suspicious circumstances. His body was found in a box of handles without a mark on it and his death was ruled as “misadventure” by the county coroner.

p. 188 “forklifts sat naked”* The original forklifts were invented by the Aztecs.

p. 189 “this year’s Loan Day Celebration”* Loan Day celebrates the quelled Debtors’ Uprising of 1919 in which 4,000 debtors, rioting over so-called human rights violations, were subdued in swift fashion by courageous guards in the Fishtown Debtors’ Jail in Philadelphia, PA. The city also celebrates this in The Mummer’s Parade.

p. 190 “I took out some sliced mango”* The San Antonio Mango Growers Association sued the creators of the show Seinfeld for the way the fruit was represented as an aphrodisiac in the episode “The Mango.” The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

p. 193 “mainly Joe Roebuck”* A deleted scene in Back to the Future III shows Dusty Hill, of the band ZZ Top, using a page of the Sears Roebuck catalog as toilet paper when stepping out of an outhouse. This was proven to be historically inaccurate in the director’s commentary as the outhouse did not reach Hill Valley, CA until 1955.

p. 198 “under the rules of eminent domain”* Atlantic City resident Vera Coking sells her rooming house for $5 million to ShamWow pitchman Vince Offer in 2003, 20 years after the city condemned her rooming house under eminent domain after refusing to sell the property to developer Donald Trump.

p. 199 “town council illegalized”* “If umbrellas are criminalized, only criminals will use umbrellas.” – Thomas Edison

p. 200 “the town council stamped the umbrellas”* “The close-up of an umbrella is as obscene as a sexual organ seen from up close. It is a sexual organ. The promiscuity of the detail, the zoom-in, takes on a sexual value.” – Jean Baudrillard

p. 202 “whenever a boxing match is scheduled”* The first recorded boxing match took place in Paleolithic times in the French village of Montignac, in which poisonous hallucinogenic mushrooms were digested and men fought large salmon. The rituals were then painted with mud on the walls to appease the gods.

p. 204 “fat putty-faced men”* Gold medalist Tommie Smith clutched a handful of Silly Putty in salute on the podium during the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics.

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ERIC NELSON is a prose writer living in Queens, New York. His stories, essays, criticisms and interviews have appeared or are forthcoming in Tin House, The Rumpus, The Billfold, Bust, Fanzine, Keep This Bag Away From Children, and Volume 1 Brooklyn, among others.