The Curious Case Of Nantucket's "Feckless Young Sod"

Amid the latest debate over short-term rentals on Nantucket at Tuesday’s Special Town Meeting, Union Street resident Elizabeth Coffin took the mic to share the tale of a “feckless young sod” who was discovered drunk and passed out in her home last month.

Coffin’s story got more than a few laughs even as she made the point that “faceless” entities operating short-term rentals on Union Street had left it “a wreck of a neighborhood.”

Coffins’s comments came during debate over Article 5, a general bylaw amendment sponsored by island resident Pamela Perun that tightened the language of the portion of Chapter 123 of the town code that restricts corporate ownership of short-term rentals. That prohibition was passed by voters during the May 2024 Annual Town Meeting.

Perun’s article added partnerships and real estate investment trusts to the types of entities prohibited from operating short-term rentals. It was the only proposal related to short-term rentals that was approved by voters during Tuesday’s Special Town Meeting.

And yes, as many have pointed out, a person passing out drunk in the wrong house on Nantucket is not uncommon, nor is it a new phenomenon. But perhaps it had never been articulated in such a manner and on such a stage as Coffin did on Tuesday in front of 800-plus people.

By Thursday morning, the clip of Coffin speaking at Town Meeting was being played on Boston sports radio station WEEI, where former New England Patriots tight end Jermaine Wiggins asked "what is a 'feckless young sod'?"