A professional journalist from the late 1890s, he alternated between political dailies and literary reviews, being sympathetic to Romanian nationalism and traditionalism, and working under Ion Luca Caragiale at Moftul Român.

His articles, fables, sketch stories and plays, with their critique of Francization and affectation, earned him a following in the general public, but were regarded by critics and scholars as dated, overreaching, or overall inferior to the Caragiale model.

[5] His paternal grandfather had lost his boyar status and worked as a trader in Fefelei, outside Mizil;[5] Ranetti's father, Vasile, was a lawyer in town, who briefly served as Deputy Mayor in a Conservative Party administration.

With Cincinat Pavelescu, Radu D. Rosetti, Dimitrie Anghel and Ștefan Octavian Iosif, he co-wrote a poem welcoming her to the Tinerimea Artistică salon of March 1906.

[31] Some of Furnica's most noted cartoonists were Tinerimea painters: Ion Theodorescu-Sion, Camil Ressu, Iosif Iser, Francisc Șirato, Nicolae Petrescu Găină, and Ary Murnu—the latter remembered especially for his routine mockery of Ioan Kalinderu, administrator of the crown domains.

[37] Also that year, Ranetti produced the "rhyming prologue" Vatra luminoasă ("Burning Hearth")[14] and, as Spiriduș ("Elf"), published pieces in the anti-monarchy gazette Protestarea.

[1][14] Although Ranetti continued to be published by the right-wing traditionalist press, and most notably by Iorga's Sămănătorul and Ramuri reviews (1905–1907),[40] his Furnica was viewed by the culturally conservative as rather distasteful.

"[41] However, Iorga's coauthor, Constantin Bacalbașa (Tony's brother), qualified such statements: "Various attempts at putting out all sorts of papers, some of them pornographic in content, could not take hold [...].

[45] Although his translation was deemed "implausibly bad" by the dramatist Liviu Rebreanu,[46] Ranetti's own play was granted the 3rd place in the National Theater's biannual awards ceremony, June 1910.

[51] During May 1911, he and C. Bacalbașa left for London, where they were to cover the coronation of George V.[52] Later that summer, Ranetti and Eftimiu traveled into Transylvania, Austria-Hungary, where they witnessed aerial shows by the Romanian aviation pioneer, Aurel Vlaicu, and met with a visiting Caragiale.

[54] Before and during the Second Balkan War, he and Furnica began exposing cases of malfeasance in office, involving the higher echelons of the Conservative Party—focusing on Petre P. Carp and Alexandru Bădărău's alleged nepotism.

[19] This period saw his involvement in theatrical and literary polemics: in 1913, he attacked in Epoca and Furnica Alexandru Davila, chairman of the National Theater, alleging that he was corrupt, womanizing,[19] and violent toward his staff.

[1][14] In May, just before the start of World War I, George and Anastase Ranetti returned with Ion Gorun on a cultural tour of Transylvania, attending Romanian-only events in Arad and Șiria.

[58] One of the regulars at literary hot-spots such as Casa Capșa and Kübler Coffeehouse,[59] and a contributor to Cristu Negoescu's review România de Mâine,[60] he was focused on a dispute with the more skeptical Emil Fagure, of Adevărul.

As noted years later by their common acquaintance I. Peltz, this turned into a quarrel: "Ranetti the humorist could not maintain his serenity and objective judgment in his everyday life, as various exaggerations of the chauvinistic kind seeped into his writing.

Following a Central Powers counteroffensive and the fall of Bucharest (during which Furnica began a long hiatus),[62] Ranetti followed the Romanian Army on its hasty retreat, settling in Iași.

There, he earned an editorial position at România, the nationalist propaganda magazine, which had been created by General Prezan and Mihail Sadoveanu as a means to "sustain the morale of soldiers and civilians.

[65] While working there, Ranetti often returned to his earlier pseudonyms, including George Biciușcă and Kiriac Napadarjan, but also signed himself Geo and Marchizul de Kogealac ("Marquis of Cogealac").

These appeared as bound books: at Casa Școalelor, De atunci și d-acolo, versuri ușurele scrise-n clipe grele ("From Then and There: Easy Rhymes of Tougher Times", 1921); at Cartea Românească, Poezii ("Poems", 1923).

[79] Days later, eulogies appeared in Gândirea,[78] Țara Noastră,[32] and Viitorul, followed by a retrospective article in Universul Literar and, in later years, by Tudor Arghezi and D. I. Suchianu's essays on Ranetti.

[5] With his poetic debut as "Dom Paladu", Ranetti parodied and impersonated George D. Pallade, the National Liberal Party politico, making abundant use of 1890s Bucharest slang.

For instance, he referred to an insignificant loss as to a dommage en champignons (from the Romanian pagubă-n ciuperci, "a waste of mushrooms"), and to a very unlikely situation as quand tu verrais ton chignon (când ți-oi vedea ceafa, "when you'll be seeing your nape").

[5] As noted by Gorun, Ranetti produced several "poems of deep sentiment, of butterflies, and trees, and nightingales", published with "the discretion of true art" in Viața Romînească.

Un regat pentru-o țigare A grăit un nuștiucare Dar azi, având în vedere, Monarhismul în scădere, Considerând, bat-o vina, Că-i republică și China, Orice post eu aș alege, Chiar și popă la Mizil, Decât acest post de rege, Azi atâta de fragil.

[26] My kingdom for a cigarette, Some claimant is reported to have said; But seen as monarchism is diced, And also given that, for Christ, All countries seem to want them downed— Even the Chinese have sacked the crowned—, Whatever job you'll see me step up for, A Mizil parson or some other minor thing, I must not wish for something more: It cannot be this fragile post of king.

When it was first published, Romeo și Julietta la Mizil enlisted complaints from poet Gheorghe Kernbach, who declared himself horrified by the "crudeness" of its comedic realism.

[29] The play shows the two local party leaders coming to terms with their children having fallen in love with each other, and switching sides, only to find themselves occupying each other's starting position.

[88] Scholar Ioana Pârvulescu uses the work as a case study, highlighting Caragiale's superiority: although it uses "the exact same prime matter" and "the topoi of the Belle Époque", Romeo și Julietta la Mizil proves "that one may produce a masterpiece, and the other a kerfuffle".

[89] In Ranetti's text, she notes, the wordplay covers "mannequins and cardboard", while Caragiale uses journalistic speech to invoke "live humans", "preserving and treasuring life".

"[82] His noted contributions there include jibes at Maria Mihăescu, the notorious courtesan and fellow Prahova native, whom he famously nicknamed Mița Biciclista ("Cycling Molly")—according to local legend, she had rejected Ranetti's advances,[92] and referred to him as a "swine".