One of the special treasures of living in Los Angeles or San Diego is knowing that the adult amusement park of Las Vegas is only a brief road trip away. While I’m waiting with bated breath for them to build a high-speed train through the desert, the trip up I-15 and over the mountains is still decidedly bearable, considering the array of illusionary delights that waits on the other side.
I don’t make it up there too often these days, but when I do I generally limit my debauchery to the cheapest craps table I can find. I used to play blackjack with a simple high-low counting system, but after I had a magical night and won enough to pay off a good chunk of my student loans, the game lost its appeal. I’ve always been a terrible poker player because I have a tendency to fall in love with any good hands I get and completely discount that it’s possible other players have even better hands. Last year was a great one for sports gambling, so good in fact that this fall my computer (I call him Gamblor) and I will be hosting a weekly column of football picks. Stay tuned!
Knoxville, Tennessee combo Superdrag’s 1996 major-label debut, Regretfully Yours, will always remind me of driving. Y’see, I was finishing up college at Cleveland State University, which was about a 40-minute drive from my place in suburban Elyria, Ohio. Not exactly a hotbed of culture, mind you. Luckily, Regretfully was about the perfect length for the one-way trip, so that final semester of school, I would use it as my driving music. By the time that last song hit, I knew it was time to start looking for parking (of course, I could play it all the way over again by the time I’d find a spot on a busy Wednesday).