Don't miss Kevin Cullen's The Redemption of Shane Paul O'Doherty: "He was given his middle name because he was born on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, who was a zealous killer of Christians before his own conversion on the road to Damascus. But O'Doherty's story is not about a miraculous religious conversion as much as a gradual spiritual evolution. He had a tug of war with God, and God won."
Michael Brick's Finding Shade In A Legend's Shadow: "Frankie drinks his beer and the jukebox is quiet. Willy the lady bartender opens the metal register and pushes some bills down and says she always has to keep track of everything."
Brady Dennis' Hard Times On Easy Street: "She sleeps in a sleeping bag atop a futon because the storm ruined her mattresses. She keeps a white candle lit 24 hours a day because her aunt told her it would chase away the black cloud that follows her."
Larry Bingham from March, Eight Seconds To Fame: "Few people are more talked about in America's burgeoning world of professional bull riding than Ross Coleman, the only man from Oregon among the world's top 45 bull riders. It's his full-time job. Ross hovers over the twitchy Jack Hammer because he's trying to pay his mortgage in Redmond and fuel his Ford truck and float a respectable life with his girlfriend, Amy Lee."
And some vintage Elizabeth Gilbert: "The Ruddy Nut Hut had pinball and darts. The Tall Folks Tavern had a pool table. Some nights, one place had toilet paper or cigarettes when the other did not. And in the hot summers, the drunks crossed that stretch of First Avenue like it was someone's back yard, like the moving cars were harmless as swing sets or sandboxes, like the twin bars were just neighbors' picnics, welcome as any suburb."
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