From First Federal, a stream of employees also start crossing North State, working their way up to the walk beside the Old Capitol, across by War Memorial with its World War I frieze of helmeted and leggined men, then around to the parking lot.

Strangers of limited information and dull apprehension were sometimes observed not to know what a Powler was.

Those smart dudes (and dudesses) on ESPN (and virtually every other channel, it seems) winning hundreds of thousands, or even millions, at Texas Hold 'Em, don't become legends because they're lucky, although that is an element of poker, as it is in life, that should never be discounted.

There was a blood smear across her mouth, skewed like lipstick applied by a drunken hand. Mom was a fucking zombie. “Mombie,” he said, giggling stupidly, deliriously.