<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/d062c0c9-1673-44f4-9ea3-53e9843e6c0b/741FFB41-3322-453E-B20E-5B52126A8DED/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/guy-walks-into-a-bar/?apage=3" href="http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/guy-walks-into-a-bar/?apage=3" style="font-size: 11px;">proof.blogs.nytimes.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/guy-walks-into-a-bar/?apage=3"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/proof.blogs.nytimes.com/img/CDD925B6-DC61-4217-97D5-EF9EAB61A5F3" alt="Proof | Alcohol and American Life" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/guy-walks-into-a-bar/?apage=3"><H2 class="entry-title">Guy Walks In to a Bar</H2></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/guy-walks-into-a-bar/?apage=3"><P>I began tending bar back when the drinking age in New York State was 18 and I was just old enough to legally drink. My father, a retired New York City detective and man with the quiet morals of a Quaker, used to say that I was “spinning my wheels” working in a saloon. But I shrugged off his admonishment, secure in my belief that the barroom was a magical place filled with characters and humor. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/guy-walks-into-a-bar/?apage=3"><P>I wasn’t wrong. There were plenty of characters. Some of them were regular barroom Aristotles. Though not soon enough, I came to learn that any sentence said within 15 feet of beer tap and beginning with the phrase “You know what you oughta do” should be recoiled from as if from a communicable disease. To listen to the words that inevitably follow that preamble is to put your very life path at risk. It’s a wonder I didn’t end up joining the circus back then. But if I didn’t learn a whole lot about life as a barkeep, I certainly learned how to laugh at it:</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/741FFB41-3322-453E-B20E-5B52126A8DED/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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