Sublime

If you tried, even occasionally, not to cooperate, if you dropped off “the team,” if—ever—you exercised your responsibility to the public rather than your responsibility to Robert Moses, you were out in the cold until you died. There would be no consulting jobs, no authority make-work—and, if the rumors were true, when the State Retirement Board me

young John Bear discovered basketball and Wilfred Dick, then a four-foot-two point guard. It was hatred at first sight, the kind of grand romantic hatred that in thirteen-year-old boys is indistinguishable from or the nearest they can get to love.

There was even a limited-edition series of Asheville Tourists white wine with Ted E. sketched onto the bottle. Gary had done a deal with a local grocery store chain and Nabisco to keep Ted’s suitcase stocked with cookies that he could hand out to the kids. It was all so very exciting. It was all so very nineties.