Dick Clark Died Today

by Mike Cleary

A professor, a pro football player and a plumber walk into a bar. While it sounds like the start of a bad joke, it is anything but. Instead, it is the beginning of an extraordinary and life-changing adventure for this unlikely trio and and six others of their acquaintance. The bar they walked into was a tapas bar in Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto. The fateful day was Wednesday, April 18th, 2012. All the plumber sought was a break from his dirty labors. Most of the others simply sought a break from the ennui of a long afternoon. An hour or so of some friendly, profitless conversation with an alcoholic drink or two of choice and they all would have left feeling mission accomplished. But one of them, a newly retired Bay Area radio personality, came in to Bar OSA armed with the startling news that the forever young Dick Clark had just died. It was generally agreed by all concerned that that was the catalyst that transformed their lives. During their meandering bar banter, it was decided the best way to remember Dick Clark was to buy a lottery ticket in his honor. Let me just say there wouldn't be a story if they lost.

243 pages, Paperback

Published November 26, 2015