These two paragraphs are priceless, and all the more because “It was nine o’clock in the morning” started the Piano Man recording in my head “…regular crowd shuffles in. There’s an old man sitting next to me, making love to his tonic and gin.” Makes for ironic literary juxtaposition if you know the song. “Now Paul is a real estate novelist, who never had time for a wife, and he’s talking with Davy, who’s still in the Navy, and probably will be for life. And the waitress practicing politics, as the businessman slowly get stoned. Yes, they’re sharing a drink they call loneliness, but it’s better than drinking alone.”