fun

These stickers are becoming quite popular in my area.

You can get 100 of them from Amazon for ten bucks. Then you stick them onto fuel pumps, right next to the display for the price.

I read about an injury on the set of America’s got talent. It was an escape stunt where the stunt man was suspended between two swinging cars. The man needed to escape in order to not be crushed by the cars.

He didn’t make it in time and was seriously injured.

My opinion is that the so called stunt man was an untalented amateur who had no idea what he was doing. The people in charge of that show are no better. The situation is perfectly summed up by Penn Gilette.

I believe it’s morally wrong to do things on stage that are really dangerous. It makes the audience complicit in unnecessary risk.

Stunts like this should carry the APPEARANCE of danger, but not the reality. This is how a professional does it:

So I am going to have to disagree with Linda on this one. She states that the liquor being rationed due to shortages is only expensive because men use expensive liquor to impress women. Liquors that cost more aren’t just for impressing women. As a person who is a fan of Tequila, I can tell you that price is usually related to quality. Like most things, the more the quality, the more you pay, even though there are some exceptions.

Most people you meet who tell you that they don’t like Tequila have usually only had Jose Cuervo Gold when they were in college. That swill is only good for college frat boys to get themselves and the cheap tarts they are chasing drunk enough to rub genitals. The lower end Tequilas (like the aforementioned Cuervo Gold at $15 a bottle) are horrible for any purpose. They taste like paint thinner and cause horrible hangovers.

Many “house Margueritas” that get sold by bars and restaurants are made from this junk. If you are going to drink these at a bar, ask what their call brands are, and pick a better one. I always avoid Cuervo.

The middle Tequilas usually cost $30 to $60 a bottle are good for mixing drinks like Margueritas. My go to for this is usually Herradura. I am partial to Reposados, and the Herradura Reposado runs about $45 a bottle. Don Roberto is decent for making drinks and costs about $35 a bottle. Another that I recommend is 1800, which also runs about $35, as well as Casa Noble.

At the low end of the sipping Tequilas, Cincoro runs about $80 to 100 a bottle. This is a good enough Tequila that you don’t want to be covering up the taste with mixers. Do not waste your money getting an expensive Tequila mixed drink. You drink good Tequila straight, like a good sipping whiskey. I use whiskey stones to chill it, because the melting of ice waters down the wonderful, smooth taste of a good Tequila.

One of the Tequilas on the above rationing list is Don Julio 1942. A bottle of that will set you back $150, but it is a great Tequila for sipping. Other Tequilas in this price range that I will tell you are just as good: Clase Azul, and Casamigos.

Remember earlier when I said price usually equals quality? The exception to me is Patron. Everyone gushes about the quality of Patron. I don’t like it. My opinion is that Patron is overpriced and overhyped.

If you are one of those who like good spirits, try one of the high end Tequilas. If you are a fan of Margueritas, try a good mixing Tequila and follow the recipe below, you will be surprised at the difference it makes:

• 6 ounces of Herradura Reposado Tequila
• 8 ounces Grand Marnier
• 8 ounces lime juice
• 6 ounces simple syrup 

Mix the above in a pitcher, then pour over ice into a glass. I like mine without salt on the rim. My wife chooses to salt the rim of her glass. YMMV.

As usual, I gain no profit, nor do I have any financial interest in the products on this page. I simply am a customer and a fan.

Some serious time, effort, and skill went into this piece of satire. Every time I watch it, I catch something else.

For those of you who want to have Navy flashbacks, there are all kinds of sound effects.

I snaked out my pipes recently, but not like this. If I get bitten on my nether regions by a snake crawling in the pipes, there will be gunshots and a broken toilet involved.

Friday is National Donut Day, and here is where you can get a free donut in Central Florida. I reccommend Krispy Kreme.

A continuation of my Craps posts. As I have been saying: There is no way to beat math. There are some who will tell you that you can “call your shots” by throwing the dice a certain way. That is balderdash that the casinos actually encourage people to believe, because it makes the gullible actually gamble more.

Why isn’t it possible? The rules of the game include a proviso that the shooter must throw the dice far enough that they hit the back wall of the table. The wall is covered in a rubber bumper that has little pyramid shaped bumps on it. Those bumps are designed to deflect the dice in unpredictable directions. If you are good enough to nail those in the same exact spot every time, you need to be playing professional golf or basketball, you will make more money than at the casino.

No, the winning strategy doesn’t involve the way you play the game. It involves the way that you bet.

I enter the casino with a daily budget. Let’s say that I am spending a weekend at a casino. I have budgeted $500 to gamble with. Since I will be there for 2 evenings, I will lose no more than $250 a day. I walk into the casino with $250 each evening, and once that is gone, I am done for the evening.

So let’s say that I enter the casino and due to random variation, I enter the casino on Friday evening with $250. I leave the casino with $375. When I enter the casino on Saturday, I do it with $250. Win or lose, yesterday’s play is yesterday. By doing this, I limit my losses while making my wins unlimited. This works pretty well. There are days that I have lost the $250 in less than an hour, and that stings. There are also days that I have walked in with $250 and then left the casino with more than $4,000.

First, don’t take the sucker bets with YOUR money. Use the casino’s money. I only take sucker bets (low chance of winning, high payout, high house edge) when I am far ahead. What this means is that you don’t make the risky bets until you have doubled the money that you started with. If you walked into the casino with $250 for the day, don’t make risky bets until you have more than $500.

Second, the best bets on the table are the pass line bet, place bets on the 6 or 8, and taking odds on your pass line bet. (I don’t like to play the “dark side” bets like “Don’t Pass.” Yes, they are bets with a low house edge, I just can’t have fun winning while the table is losing.) Personally, a sound bet to me is any bet with a house edge of 2% or less. Here are the tables for calculating house edge on multi roll bets. Stay away from single roll bets until you are gambling with their money.

Third, if the table is cold- walk away and come back later. Tables tend to run cold and hot. I know that mathematically, this shouldn’t be true- but it seems to work that way.

Lastly, make sure that you frequent one chain of casinos and make sure that you are in their player’s club. The free comps you get may well be the best part about gambling and the only way to come out ahead. Free rooms, free drinks, free food, and more. I always stick with MGM casinos and have spent my way into Platinum status there. I get free hotel rooms, sometimes free airfare, and other perks. A four night stay in a room at the NYNY Hotel in Las Vegas normally costs $500, so getting a free, four night stay is a win.

My next trip out to Vegas is already booked. They are giving me a four night stay for free (we are paying for a 5th), plus $100 resort credit for meals, plus $200 in casino credit to gamble with. (I am not specifically endorsing MGM resorts- any of the big name casinos would work just as well.) My budget for gambling for the 5 days is $1,500, but I am getting $800 in perks.

Just remember, win or lose, I play because it is FUN. Also remember my rules for gambling:

• 1 I know that I will lose money over the long term. It is mathematically certain. So budget your gambling and stick to it.
• 2 I gamble because it is fun and entertaining. If I ever find myself gambling while desperate to win because I need the money, it is time to quit.
• 3 Don’t ever gamble with money you can’t afford to lose. If you are gambling your rent or grocery money, that isn’t entertainment, it’s desperation.

This is a follow up to my series on Craps. The last post was on good bets, and this one will be about bad bets. The worst bets on the table are what I refer to as sucker bets. A few of them here:

The one set of bets that are horrible are all of the “one roll” bets. Bets where you bet on the outcome of a single roll are all found in the center of the table. They all have a house edge of between 11.1 and 16.9.

These bets include “any craps” which is a bet that the next roll of the dice will be a 2, 3, or 12. If the dice come up as a 2, 3, or 12, the payout is 7 to 1. The house advantage is 11.1. Similar is betting on either the 3 or the 11. Either bet pays 15 to 1, and the house advantage is still 11.1. You can bet the “Big 7” which pays 4 to 1, but has a house advantage of 16.9.

So how exactly do we make money on Craps, if all bets are losers? There are many theories and tactics. Some people recommend things like trying to control the dice and can make them land on a certain number. That won’t work. The game can’t be rigged, it can’t be cheated, and it can’t be beat in the long term.

It CAN be beat in the short term by being a smart player. That is where we find the fun. More on that later.