Tavern Stories

I was a recently divorced man at the age of forty-five when I first tried Internet dating.Back then, in early 2001, on-line dating wasn’t quite a novelty any longer but it also wasn’t something everybody had grown up with. In that period before Tinder, Instagram, and smartphones, people were still trying to get the hang of meeting partners through their desktop computers.At first, it was quite exciting for me, not being t...

I’m not sure why I tried my first bar pick-up, but it had something to do with my college girlfriend Michelle. At the end of our sophomore year in June 1975, she was starting to get flaky after going with me for nearly nine months. She suddenly found excuses not to meet me, and she often didn’t return my phone calls. The word going through the grapevine at my student newspaper was that she had been seen with an older guy...

ARLINGTON, Tex. — With a spot in the NCAA championship game at stake, Kentucky’s freshman starters had battled No. 2 Wisconsin from behind nearly all night. But needing two points to force overtime after a furious second-half rally, there was no question which Wildcat would get the ball. With 5.7 seconds left, Kentucky put the ball in the hands of Aaron Harrison, half of the team’s 6-foot-6 twin back court. And once again...