In the photo the empty lot behind me blurs in the Atlantic City distance, making faded letters advertising salt water taffy impossible to read on the peeling side of the building. Yet memories of my youth glisten amid the gravel and dirt of that barren piece of property where Eddie’s Shamrock Bar, the first bar […]
Saturday afternoon about 2 p.m. five or six Harleys lean heavy on sidestands outside Zembie’s on Second Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Two rugged-looking guys dressed in faded blue denim and scuffed well-worn boots stand beside the downtown bar with their backs to the wall. The man with the braided beard wears Norse fire god “Surt’s” […]
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro might act high, but did he ever personally bang the bong? Shapiro is one of America’s most prominent aspiring candidates craving White House power even more than Snoop Dog wants another hit off the water pipe. Television host Bill Maher, one of America’s biggest publicly self-proclaimed potheads, recently interviewed Shapiro but […]
As tough as he was, my dad Shamus carried around an inspirational poem in his wallet until the day he died. Poems can be tough, too. My dad’s namesake James J. Corbett, boxing’s first heavyweight champion under Marquis of Queensbury rules, wrote the poem called “One More Round.” “Fight one more round. When your feet […]
Pat rushed into the Scranton Irish bar screaming, “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, did you hear the news?” Mike swallowed the last of his Guinness, wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and ordered another pint. “I heard enough Lackawanna County political news on my walk here to make my head blow up like […]
