Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Monday was the first Memorial Day without baseball since 1880. World War I, the Spanish Flu, and World War II couldn't stop the tradition but the Wuhan Virus managed the feat... "We are often more frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality." - Seneca. Always makes me think of the Dune quote, "Fear is the mind-killer." Seems like a couple of apt quotes these days... Hooray! The NHL has announced its return! There will be a 24-team playoff this summer... After the Wuhan Virus say goodbye to blowing on the dice or having someone blow on your dice in Vegas or at any casino while playing craps. In fact also so goodbye to crowding around the table of a hot shooter. Craps will be a completely different game from now on (though I hope someday it will return to how God intended)... Salt (NaCl) is the only family of rocks eaten by humans... Wuhan Virus confession - I was really taking my gym for granted. I miss my gym...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- It got real dusty when reading this and watching the video over my morning coffee

- Billy Walters sentenced to 5-years in prison for insider trading

- Heh heh (as an aside - how soon before Washington insiders nickname Steve Bannon "the Hedgehog"?)

- Cool story of a guy who once rolled the dice at the craps table for 3-hours straight

- It's funny because it's true!

- Hot Pie from Game of Thrones opened his own bakery in London. The name of the bakery? You Know Nothing John Dough.

Cheating at Craps

Very interesting tale of the Wynn Casino allegedly being cheated out of $700,000 at craps. You don't hear tales of cheating at dice very often and especially not in what I assume was a high-roller section of the Wynn:

The Strip resort has filed a lawsuit in Clark County District Court against frequent customers Leonardo Fernandez and Veronica Dabul, both Argentine nationals, asking for the return of about $700,000 Wynn officials say they illegally won during a monthlong cheating spree that ended with their arrest on July 18.

The two are suspected of working with several unidentified customers who placed bets or distracted dealers and are accused of pulling off their gambit by using an infrequently seen technique known as dice sliding.

As the name implies, dice sliding involves sliding at least one of the dice across the table after positioning it in the hand so that the desired number, generally a six, remains face up.

No one claims that sliding, also called scooting, can deliver exact numbers, but skilled sliders can considerably shorten their odds of winning.

Dabul was released after two days in the Clark County Detention Center. Fernandez was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service on July 25. Immigration officials could not say what Fernandez's current status was late Friday.