Don't expect improvements and you wont be dissapointed ...

A thought about Shirley Sherrod (sorta), but first a couple of things -

I was going to ask, after all the opening house troubles you described, if your joint was owned by Harrah's, but as I read on I became convinced of it. And as such, let me say, that's s.o.p. for that group in this brave new gaming world - see post title here. My place has been around for 40+ years, owned by Harrah's for 4+, and we have floor on salary whom get paid zero OT, yet if they call-in they're prorated and docked a day's salary. "They can't do that", you might say. Oh ya? Who's going to stop them? They are Harrah's, this is Nevada. Case closed. Now I should add that the floor's "OT" is compulated and months down the road, at the joint's discretion, they give them days off to make up for the extra work. Problem is they measure it in "hours", so you may be 2 hours into your shift and they say, "take off, we're paying you back 6 hours", leaving no time to make plans, or utilize the time to the best of your ability as you would were it a scheduled extra day off. Sometimes in the door they tell em' to take off for the night. Why do I care? The floor are miserable. During football they work 14, 16 days in a row and their pay check is NONE the heavier for it. Not to mention they watch an average of 8 - 10 games now, even in the carney pit. Try getting a high end player rated within 90 minutes of sitting down - impossible. Last night I had a "7 Star" our highest card (save one card printed for one guy, once) sit down. The pit boss (or "back up ASM" as they're called) was standing in the middle of the pit, near me. And since it had been 20 minutes sitting there (the card) I said, "hey [enter name], you mind swiping this, she (the floor) is pretty busy." In front of the players and everyone the answer was, "No, she'll get to it." The ASM's are on the same salary fiasco as the floor - this guy had all the work beaten out of him. Along with the pencil being the only one with the authority to pull a lid in this mammoth place; the unnecessary OT; restricted comp offerings; you're just a number (& I mean the players) mentatlity, this is the sad state of affairs we're now in. Again, see post title.

***

Do you know that if facebook were a country it would be the third most populous nation on earth? It surpassed the 500,000,000 member mark. Seriously? All that for "Mikey is getting geared up for Friday!" - who cares? Perhaps it's just me, but I find these social networking sites about as irritating as people whom choose a "tag line" for their text messages which is then included at the end of each text. I mean, is part of the text? Is it code? What the hell are you trying to say? Then you realize - it's a f***ing tag line. Dear Lord in Heaven, really? Is that how you saw yourself as a young boy? Growing up and having a tag line? These are all countless individuals for whom a few years in the service would have done them a world of good. Granted, between this site and a few weekly familial phone calls I talk to everyone in my life I enjoy talking to. But for the love of, I actually had a girl at work, with obvious interest in me, request I "look her up" on facebook. She actually wanted me to proceed to the next step via facebook. I thought it was a joke, a quasi-brush off, but she wrote down her last name to give me the proper spelling. Does it occur to anyone else here that she could have simply written down her cell number? It didn't occur to her. That's what "fb" is to me - a filter. If you (as an available female) suggest I contact you via a web social network then to quote Seinfeld's Soup Nazi: "NEXT!" I'm inclined to agree with one of my favorite broads on this, Betty White - "I had no idea what a facebook was. Now that I do I know it's a waste of time."

****

On Sherrod, just a slight follow up.

Anderson Cooper, of CNN, gave a rather well put together monologue on the vagaries of "fractionalized journalism." He condemned the left repeatedly as he also took apart the Brietbarts of the web (the conservative blogger extraordinaire who originally posted the Sherrod comments somewhat out of context); and lamented how journalism, real journalism (a term I loathe, as do we all), is more and more a rare commodity. I heard all this and was all ready to say hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day, and in his zeal to rebuff the NAACP Tea Party resolution Breitbart (a Tea Party advocate) should have vetted the video piece a bit more. And then (enter ominous music) I hear on NPR, of all places, that (in all seriousness) Anderson Cooper is putting out a new fragrance, a perfume' - "Coop."

Oh how quickly the high horse turns into a Shetland.

Yes (Irish accent please), I remember sitting fondly at mee' grandfather's knee as he went on about "Cronkite Cologne", and as the powerful musk permeated my ol factory senses I sat thinking to myself, "one day I'll smell like that and be a real man, and if I'm lucky, a real journalist."

What was it Andy? "Essence of Jennings" was such a cash cow that you couldn't resist? Next time there Coopster, check the el fragrance de coopi'er at the door when you set out to climb up reporter mountain and hand out journalism commandments from on high.

And I'll only add that if you buy this cologne you should be summarily sterilized, for you have clearly proven unfit for procreation.