Archive: Go read this

Fidel Lopez was dragged from his truck, beaten and nearly killed at Florence and Normandie just minutes after the same bad luck fell on Reginald Denny, the afternoon of April 29, 1992. Lopez had gasoline poured over him as he lay on the ground and was saved from death by a pastor who told the attackers they would have to kill him too. Lopez has not been seen in the media much since then, so Times columnist Steve Lopez tracked him down. Wasn't easy.

After Junior Seau died, Deadspin received an email from Albert Flores Jr., a U.S. Marine Corps captain in Sneads Ferry, N.C. He describes a chance encounter in an Oceanside bar last year with Seau, the former USC and NFL linebacker — and Flores' football hero.

A newspaper story about a grown-up Huntington Beach kid who searched for his former teacher so he could apologize for a long-ago act tells us something about forgiveness, and memory, and life. The story unfolds in layers for him, the teacher and the writer of the story. Go read at the Portland Oregonian.