Games of Chance
Atlantic City probably belongs on the list of America’s most desolate places. It huddles on the coast, an expanse of run-down two-story houses, tattoo parlors, cash-for-gold shops, vacant lots, and discount stores, below the towering palace-like casino-hotels desperately trying to convey an image of glamour in the midst of shabbiness.
The “gaming industry,” as it now likes to be called, doesn’t worry too much about exteriors. The outside of the casinos are meant to be seen from a distance, as mirages of sophisticated splendor. At street level, they are utilitarian and ugly, except for the entrances which are shiny glass and brass studies in visual vulgarity. Inside, the buildings are designed to whirl the visitor though pathless mazes of slot machines and to dazzle with flashing lights and fruity electronic noise.
There is perhaps a metaphor here for contemporary higher education, but I’ll let that go.
I have found myself at casinos several times in recent years, either because convention organizers thought the venue would be a lure or because a well-meaning host insisted I see how this or that tribe of Native Americans had found a way to cash in on their legal privileges. The experience always leaves me feeling a little unclean; sad at the display of deadening folly; and angry at the politicians who promote this sort of thing.
And promote them they do. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, for example, has just proposed a joint venture with the Genting Group, a Malaysian company that builds and operates casinos, to build a giant casino-cum-convention center at the Aquaduct Racetrack in Queens. The artistic renderings are, of course, beautiful, but what you see inside a real casino is something else.
Sure enough, in Atlantic City there was the woman attached to an oxygen tank feeding a slot machine. Here was an elderly husband spoon feeding his stroke-felled wife, as though he could think of no better place to tend to her last weeks or months than the vicinity of the blackjack tables. Here were families with five- and six-year-old children along, apparently, to learn how to squander money that might be put towards their educations. At night the casinos filled up with separate knots of boys in skinny jeans and girls in tight mini-dresses and stilettos, doing their best to live up to the Jersey Shore stereotypes.
Ohio Venture Loan Cash Advance Shop - News
We had $351 million of cash and cash equivalents at December 31, 2011, and $1.608 billion at December 31, 2010. Total debt was $6.57 billion at December 31, 2011, and $5.583 billion at December 31, 2010. At year-end 2011, we had more than $3.8 billion
The Gold Report: We have seen some incredible volatility in the market over the last three or four months, with many junior resource stocks on the Toronto Venture Exchange beaten down, even if they have proven resources and substantial cash treasuries.
It huddles on the coast, an expanse of run-down two-story houses, tattoo parlors, cash-for-gold shops, vacant lots, and discount stores, below the towering palace-like casino-hotels desperately trying to convey an image of glamour in the midst of
RM: Oh, absolutely. A lot of these companies not only have the value, but they continue working and adding to that value every day. It's a fantastic opportunity to buy some companies not only on the path to production but also on the path to some
In corporate news, Chesapeake Energy(CHK) and EnerVest will receive $2.3 billion from France's Total(TOT) for a 25% stake in a joint venture for oil drilling in the Utica Shale area of Ohio. Under the deal, Total will pay Chesapeake $610 million up
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I still have to find the perfect white shirt, I was coveting Equipment ones but I’d like to try them in a store instead of blindly ordering online… problem is that I don’t know if I’ll ever find the courage to enter Luisa Via Roma: the shop assistant don’t look exactly kind and welcoming there… (it’s incredible but it’s easier that I shop in Florence instead of Antwerp or Brussels even if I live in Belgium now…)
Now, can please someone tell me why I wrote a book instead of a comment? I’ll never learn…
Oh, I’m running a giveaway on my blog: you can win 250 euros of shopping on a cool website (they carry also Cambridge fluoro satchels ;D) so if you want to enter you’re welcome!
kiss
Al
-The Red Dot-
These photos are so lovely, I love being by the water and seeing all that open space, so relaxing. I was just about to leave this comment when I saw you’d left one for me – thank you for clearing up the ‘fanny pack’ issue! I did not know it meant something different in the US and have always thought WHY on earth would anyone call it a fanny pack (and now I’m just thinking why would anyone here name it a BUM BAG, it doesn’t even go on the bum ha ha!) xx
Hi Jenny!
Happy to see that you are back and connected now. Have missed seeing your updates.
Love your white shirt and agree that everyone needs one. There are just certain things in a wardrobe that you need and that for sure is one of them. Think most of us could count on 1 hand the things we wear most of the time. Strange how we spend so much money on clothes and then we wear just a few “favorite” things. Like jeans and basic colored tees. Seems to me that we would realize when we are shopping to spend more on the things that we love to wear. Now that it is the end of the year and there will be lots of sales for sure over the next few months. Hope I can control what I am buying and not just buy because it is a good “sale” item. That way next year when I count, everything I count will COUNT! If you understand what I am saying.