In Manhasset you were either Yankees or Mets, rich or poor, sober or drunk...You were 'Gaelic' or 'garlic," as one schoolmate told me, and I couldn't admit, to him or myself, that I had both Irish and Italian ancestors. J. R. Moehringer More Quotes by J. R. Moehringer More Quotes From J. R. Moehringer While I fear that we're drawn to what abandons us, and to what seems most likely to abandon us, in the end I believe we're defined by what embraces us. J. R. Moehringer embrace ends believe Any book is better than no book. Slowly, surely, one will lead you to another, which will lead you to the best. J. R. Moehringer book To be a man, a boy must see a man J. R. Moehringer be-a-man men boys Beer is amazing. Nutritional. Medicinal. A beverage, but also a meal. J. R. Moehringer beverages meals beer Some of football's gaudiest displays of manliness are purely aesthetic. It's not what players do, it's how they look doing it. J. R. Moehringer player football looks Write every day; never give up; it's supposed to be difficult; try to find some pleasure and reward in the act of writing, because you can't look for praise from editors, readers, or critics. In other words, tips that are much easier to give than to take. J. R. Moehringer editors giving-up writing Your best is whatever you can do comfortably without having a breakdown. J. R. Moehringer breakdown can-do Long before it legally served me, the bar saved me. It restored my faith when I was a boy, tended me as a teenager, and when I was a young man the bar embraced me. J. R. Moehringer teenager men boys A book is the only real escape from this fallen world. Aside from death. J. R. Moehringer fallen-world real book I don't know. Sometimes I try to say what's on my mind and it comes out sounding like I ate a dictionary and I'm shitting pages. Sorry J. R. Moehringer sorry mind writing If only Ed Fleming had a mother who gave such sound advice. The manager of Wazoo's, a downtown Denver restaurant, Fleming is a CSU alum who has been darned giddy about the Rams' recent success. So giddy that he donned a necklace made of Pez candies, a red blazer - and nothing else. A few people gaped (some actually set aside their beers), but most ignored Fleming as he strutted like a red-blazered rooster, demanding that all hail the Mighty Naked Beer King. J. R. Moehringer kings mother beer Baseball, boxing, handball - sooner or later every game gets compared to narrative, but only in football are the plays perfectly linear, drawn up with letters, and only in football is the field itself lined like a sheet of notebook paper. J. R. Moehringer notebook baseball football The greatest players use anger as fuel. Michael Jordan played every night with something like road rage. J. R. Moehringer player use night It takes just as many men to build a sturdy man, son, as it does to build a tower. You will look back on this time and remember remarkably little of it, excpt the extent to which I tried or did not try. J. R. Moehringer trying men son While I was busy hating Vegas, and hiding from Vegas, a funny thing happened. I grew to love Vegas. J. R. Moehringer vegas funny-things hate History is the narrative of people searching for a place to go. J. R. Moehringer places-to-go narrative people I began dividing life in absolutes... Things and people were either perfectly bad, or perfectly good, and when life didn't obey this black-and-white rule, when things or people were complex or contradictory, I pretended otherwise. I turned every defeat into a disaster, every success into an epic triumph, and separated all people into heroes or villains. Unable to bear ambiguity, I built a barricade of delusions against it. J. R. Moehringer black-and-white epic hero Of course many bars in Manhasset, like bars everywhere, were nasty places, full of pickled people marinating in regret. J. R. Moehringer bars regret people My father was a food lover and a deadbeat dad, and maybe a connection between good food and bad dads was forged early, in the deepest folds of my subconscious, where we make so many decisions about our parents. J. R. Moehringer good good-food food father In Zurich, in a cafe overlooking the Limmat, I ate butter-drenched white asparagus pulled from the ground that morning; it had the aftertaste of champagne. I've been able to appreciate epic meals in San Francisco, New Orleans, Berlin, Paris, Las Vegas. J. R. Moehringer new appreciate white morning
