There were two ways he could look at the situation, he told me, glancing nervously about the room. He had been trapped in a "fucking bus in the middle of fucking Michigan," as he put it, bound for the renowned historic city of Toledo. That's in Ohio, in case you didn't know, he informed me, then proceeded to go on a ten-minute tirade covering everything from the unfairness of giving all those "chinks and wetbacks and lazy fucking niggers" special scholarships and special benefits on the job and all on and on. What all this had to do with me I had no idea, but I let him ramble just the same. Even so, right about then I figured out that it was going to take more than a few minutes for him to relate his story, so I ordered another Grolsch for myself and a pitcher of Bud Lite for him.

• look9