Tony at the Red Line Tap.

“Dragon Stout?”

Sean looks up from his worn copy of Etienne de La Boétie’s Discours de la servitude volontaire.

“Cold or room temperature?” sighed Sean as if  offended that I was asking him, a bartender, to actually serve me a beer.

“Cold,” I responded with a certain puppy-dog look, as if he were doing me a great favor.

“Sometimes I just hate my job,” Sean said.

“Get another one,” chimed in Tony.

“No, no. I mean any job. The whole system of wage slavery sucks.”

I laughed. “Tony has been able to solve the problem. He sits here all day, drinking Old Style and watching Classic Sports Channel..”

“Hey, man. Keep it down. I don’t want any trouble with The Man.”

“What are you talking about, Tony?” I asked.

“Haven’t you been following the NATO 3 trial. They have undercover cops up here. They had them around the corner at The Heartland. They are on the look-out for anarchists.”

“You ain’t no anarchist, Tony.”

“Are you kidding me? Look how those guys’ own defense attorney described them. A bunch of beer-drinking, out-of-work, goof-balls. If that’s a definition of an anarchist terrorist, they could send me to Guantanamo for life.”

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Rahm brought the old Red Squad back and they are up to their dirty tricks. Or that they are spying at The Heartland. I was just over there a couple of weeks ago talking about public employee pensions.”

“No need to explain what you was talking about, Klonsky,” said Tony. “That’s all you ever talk about. But it is ironic.”

“What?”

“My uncle Lieutenant Sargent was a member of the old Chicago Red Squad. He hung out spying at the Earl of Old Town down on Wells.”

“Your uncle’s name is Lieutenant Sargent?”

“Why? You never heard of Sargent Shriver? You thought that was his military rank?”

“Okay, but there were meetings of radicals at the Earl of Old Town?”

“Aw, no. He just liked John Prine and Steve Goodman. And they was always playing there. But he retired.”

I asked, “What’s he up to now?”

Tony laughed. “That’s what’s ironic. Worrying Rahm is going to steal his pension.”