Oh ye of scum and valor! To find such properties intermingling in the
cynical abyss of a madman is so rare, and I only consider it a privilege to
be involved in such a happening. The track to Reno is a strange one, and
stranger indeed is where to roost once you arrive. You've called up the
Wizard's favorite three places of ill repute, however, do not forget Reno's
Most Liberal Pit, to be found upstairs in the Cal Neva, with $1 tables, nor
shall ye forget El Dorado, which happens to be where the best food in town
awaits, there is always Harrahs, a bit pricey but extravagant indeed, and many
like to enjoy the extravagant, not we however who choose to inhabit the
smoke-filled dungeons of ching ching ching, where money changes hands and
dealers are named Ping, Ling, and Sing, and places where Wookies dwell, and
you can't eat cookies at tables, and in the background you might see a craps
tables erupt, but surely you don't care, you just keep looking at that face
card up and your hand of which the only thing favorable is that it represents
the age that you can begin the quest of life on a new plane, that age when I
was first able to climb into the cockpit of the falcon and fly my first
mission, legally that is, and you keep asking yourself, "Should I hit, Should I
hit, Should I hit," and you ask the dealer which instigates a smile, a yellowy
partially toothless grin, and you know they know what's coming and they're
just laughing at you, and you turn your head and everybody's laughing at you
but how could they not, look at yourself, look how wasted you are, and the
circus continues, and you're the entertainment, but you hit anyways, and the
five is there and you rejoice only to see the dealer pull an ace underneath,
and the only thing repeating in your head over and over again is a certain
famous line from a certain famous movie, that I think took place in a jungle,
and it had a big fat bald guy in it, who was some great actor at the time, and
it involved crazy people and crazy times, and assassins and who knows what
else, and it keeps repeating, so you grab your double gin and tonic, take a
drink, a rather deep drink, and you crunch a little ice, and you smile,
accepting your fate, the world is against you, everybody is laughing at you,
but this is Reno, its the way things are supposed to be.
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Updated Thursday, 04-Mar-2004 14:58:30 PST