Here's a good exchange from the second part of the interview with Malcolm Gladwell:
Simmons: Second question: Can you explain in one paragraph why you're against Vegas?Gladwell: Where to start? You get there. You can't get a cab. Last time I waited 30 minutes in line at the airport. You get to your hotel, you wait another 45 minutes to check in. It's 120 degrees outside, and inside it's 45 degrees and all you can think about is there's about to be a epidemic of Legionnaires Disease. The food is terrible. Everyone loses money -- everyone. The amount of plastic surgery is terrifying. There are large packs of enormous, glassy-eyed people in stretch pants, pulling the levers on slot machines. (By the way, greatest and most under-appreciated gambling story ever: William Bennett, he of one best seller after another lecturing Americans on moral values and virtue and the bankruptcy of our culture, turns out not only to be a degenerate gambler, but a gambler who only played the slots. The slots! Had he been a great poker player -- even a decent poker player -- I'm in his corner. But the slots?) I digress. Back to Vegas: Why would I want to see Celine Dion, ever (and I'm Canadian)? Or white mutant tigers? Or the Village People? Or Tony Orlando and Dawn? I have more fun walking to the laundromat from my apartment in New York than I do in Vegas.
I don't think Vegas would be my cup of tea either. 'Pokies' as we call them here, are a scurge, and should be banned. Except its pretty much the only way for pubs to make profit here, so perhaps they're making my beer cheaper, which would actually make them a necessary evil. I was surprised to find out that Tomo was a pokie player (and I guess panchinko in Japan). Strange.
Posted by: Edward | March 16, 2006 at 06:20 PM
Yeah, my parents love it. I only like it when I win, and I'm too cheap to let myself lose too much.
Posted by: MC | March 16, 2006 at 11:57 PM