I enjoy Sterling Calver's (sp?) stories. They are vivid and moody. Though his subject matter in this piece is politics, it is the story of meeting a stranger in a bar that shines. I will not say it glimmers--I think it could be a bit shorter--but it is engaging. The only problem is when to play it. It's too long (and maybe even too overtly political) for an All Things Condsidered or Morning Edition soft-feature, and it doesn't quite fit the style of This American Life, where a longer-running first-person essay like this could find air time.

If there is a program out there about story-telling, especially with political themes, this piece is well suited for it.