JULY 20, 2017 // 3
SCRATCHPAD
Mary Todd’s passes from one personal storyteller to another
I interviewed her pri-
marily to commemorate
the 25th anniversary of her
establishment (a pillar pub
with killer grub)
but was curious
about something
else: Todd is well-
known in the local
drug-and-alcohol
rehabilitation com-
munity. I decided to
save that potentially
touchy topic for the end of
our chat; if it didn’t go well,
I’d at least have enough
material to write about the
silver jubilee.
By ERICK BENGEL
FOR COAST WEEKEND
W
hen I learned last
week that Mary
Todd, owner of
Mary Todd’s Workers Bar
& Grill, had agreed to sell
the tavern to Astoria author
Diana Kirk, my reaction
was something like: “No
way!” followed by, “That’s
perfect.”
I couldn’t put my fi nger
on why Kirk seemed a fi t-
ting suitor. Then I recalled
my fi rst meeting with Todd
two years ago.
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Before I could ask a
single substantive question,
however, she began opening
up about her struggle with
alcohol dependency,
apparently eager to
tell her story.
Todd was
remarkably forth-
right, offering gritty
personal details
that many people
would hesitate to
reveal to anyone, especially
a reporter. It’s a story she
shares with people facing
addiction to let them know
that if she can survive it, so
COAST WEEKEND EDITOR
ERICK BENGEL
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REBECCA HERREN
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EVA MARX
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can they.
I left with a unique
respect for her; I doubt I
would have been so coura-
geously candid.
What does this have to
do with Kirk? Well, are you
familiar with her 2016 col-
lection of personal essays,
“Licking Flames: Tales of a
Half-Assed Hussy”?
Kirk read selections
from her book at a KALA
event I attended a while
back. Some of her stories
— describing sex, intimacy
and bodily fl uids — are so
boldly revealing that an
irrationally prudish part of
me wanted to ask, “Are you
sure you want to say that in
public?” in the same way I
recall asking Todd: Are you
sure you want this on the
record?
My impression of these
women is that they are
disarmingly authentic. And
both, in their own way, have
made their private journeys
gifts to the world. It is reas-
suring to know that owner-
ship of the workers tavern
will pass from one honest
storyteller to another.
And, as any Mary Todd’s
regular will tell you, the
tavern itself has an honest
vibe. It is a gloriously un-
pretentious space where you
want to be yourself. A deep
history of customer satisfac-
tion is evident everywhere,
down to the names of
patrons and couples etched
into the lacquered wooden
bar.
The place invites
self-disclosure, as though
a metered dose of aerosol
truth serum has been re-
leased into the atmosphere.
Then again, that may just
be the yuccas. CW