Black Friday Trip Report
February 11th, 2014 at 8:28:34 PM
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Sarge, neé Las Vegas Virgin/Iraqi Vet, and I enjoyed a quick trip to LV over the Black Friday week-end. Shopped online for a month for airline fare deals, a deeply discounted fare was purchased on Delta, flying from an airport about an hour’s driving from the hometown airport. The only catch was a two and a half hour layover at O’Hare. I broke a vow, made five years ago, to not drink prior or during a flight when we agreed to sample a few Berghoff beers at the pub close to our gate in Chicago. My son bought rounds one and three.The pub was busy with attractive smart-dressed professional men and women admiring the other’s couture and cooties. “In the room the women come and go Talking of Michael Angelo.”
Checking into a double queen room at the Mirage, Sarge expressed his opinion that the room was at least equal to the Golden Nugget’s Rush Tower room. Since drinking our dinner in Chicago we were starving and, essentially, ended up spending $120 for two burgers and fries at BLT. We did imbibe, sampling some beers not available in our state. I was unpleasantly surprised about being charged $14 for a ten ounce snifter of musky, skunky Belgium white ale. Couldn’t even keep the glass. Sarge, a practicing home brewer laughed when he found out the house draft was rebranded PBR. We finished the meal with a snifter of Johnny Walker Black neat. On the bright side, only 23,000 MLIFE tier credits left to earn a buffet line pass.
Sarge had to complete a grad school paper and worked every day from 9:00a to 2:00p. I enjoyed this time alone at the Mirage’s wonderful pool complex, shopping for my wife, or wandering up and down the strip playing any classic rule black jack I could find. The pickins is slim. 6:5 black jack, stingy VP and carnival games seem to have infested all casinos. Do the casino execs wonder why more tourists are now flying to Las Vegas to NOT gamble? Shame on the Mirage for eliminating red chip 3:2 black jack. In the least, call the 6:5 abomination 21. Resurrect the Las Vegas Club’s Most Liberal “21” game and place it in every strip casino.
Food.
We ate at the Cravings buffet twice, the BLT Burger once, the Wicked Spoon once, the ElCo coffee shop once, and the Three George’s Grill once. Most days I would purchase yogurt, granola and fruit in the morning and try to snack healthy during the day. Sarge jogged across the Strip on several occasions to scarf a stomach stretcher or colon clogger from McD’s or from that distressed food court under McD’s. Enjoyed the Triple George Grill. We tried to have an early dinner at Fin on Saturday after playing craps downtown. We passed the empty restaurant on the way to elevators, looked at the menu and found several dishes of interest. Calling from the room, identifying myself as a hotel guest, and requesting a table in the next fifteen minutes I was disappointed when told the first table would not be available until 9:30. We made other plans and passed the empty restaurant again on our way out of the hotel. Just for giggles I borrowed Sarge’s phone, called the restaurant, and requested a table while looking into the empty restaurant. Again, we were informed that we could not be accommodated until 9:30p. I told the greeter that I was looking into the empty restaurant, its 5:45p and none of the tables were seated. No luck. You have to appreciate Fin’s don’t-need-your-business plan.
Gambling
Reluctantly, I agreed to play craps, once or twice, with Sarge. Saturday afternoon we found ourselves buying into a $5 craps game at the Golden Nugget after playing our separate games at the ElCo. I promised to use the set that my adolescent son invented and called Snake Eyes during a recreational craps research activity around the dining room table. We found a place on either side of the stickman. There were six other players at the table. Sarge was passed the dice and held them for forty minutes. A few more people joined the table to bet numbers. Sarge killed the ten and four. I made a pass line bet with full odds with place bets on the six, eight, five and nine. Towards the end of his gargantuan roll, I bought the four and ten and was paid off. A couple of girls on his rail were jumping up and down and screeching every time he rolled a number. They started kissing him on the cheek. An Asian man, on my rail, started to press his ten place bet and was betting black on several rolls. On one bet he was paid off with six black chips. When Sarge eventually sevened out he was complimented on his roll by players and crew. One of his girlfriends was given the dice and sevened out immediately. An older man at the table complimented Sarge again on his roll and then told him that in the good-old-days the dice would have been passed back to him by grateful players. I looked at my rack and then at Sarge. We both colored-up. I cashed out with fifty three more chips than what I started with.
Late Sunday afternoon Sarge and I hatched a plan to walk south on the northbound side of strip stopping at every casino to play for free top shelf bourbon. Sunday had proved to be very profitable for me playing hit and run black jack on classic black jack rules tables. We were going to combine our loose dollars which totaled about $190 and walk/crawl from Casino Royale to Bally’s playing and drinking for as long as the money would last. Walking past a $5 craps table in our hotel Sarge announced that he had a feeling and we should play craps on the empty $5 table. We each bought in for about $90 and rolled twice. Again Sarge killed the ten and held the dice for about 35 minutes total. My two rolls lasted about 25 minutes. Betting more aggressively, I cashed out with nearly 60 more chips. We both walked back to the room and folded the new Franklins into our bankrolls.
Continuing our mission but before crossing the Strip, Sarge wanted to play at TI. Providing a brief history of TI on the short walk to the casino I was anticipating a good time. My wife and I stayed in a Petite Suite on one of our wild Vegas Vacations leaving me with many fond memories. I was impressed with the interior redesign. The hotel lobby and casino seemed airy and well lit. The casino was deserted except for the few road weary shills taking up space around the carnival games. Sarge decided to play craps while I surveyed the Black Jack pit. I didn’t survey the high roller pit, if there is one, but didn’t see one 3:2 game. “O, frabjous day! Callouh! Callay!” Three young men in balloon animal hats came charging out of the county bar to yahoo in the public space. Good job TI!!! “Hurry Up Please Its Time.” Found Sarge facing off with a management type critter in the craps pit. He was sinking into the same defensive posture that won a welterweight combative battalion championship. Approaching cautiously, out of earshot, I saw him have the final word and walk away from the pit. Following him to the cage without saying a word, he cashed out and said: Let’s get the F out of here. On our way to Casino Royal he told a story of being accosted by the box man for dice setting. The boxman asked where he learned to set the dice and how long he had he practiced. The boxman threatened to 86 him. He also claimed to have identified the first dicesetter in LasVegas and permanently banned the original dice setter for life. I doubt the boxman would believe the fact that the only time Sarge ever practiced was on my dining room table with his adolescent brother in a family research activity.
We managed our way to Casino Royal and quickly busted out. We drank several bourbons on our way to bankruptcy, not winning a bet on the craps table or on Black Jack Switch. I lost 80% of my chump change bankroll betting the $3 pass line with 20x odds. I saw a man, with a 16” tower of green chips, place to lose 8” of green on the ten. He lost the first bet and won the second when I busted out on my second bet. Sarge and I had about $30 dollars between us to carry on our mission down the strip. I hit the head and came out to see Sarge hit a big pay on a multiline slot machine. Three people immediately surrounded him claiming that he jumped in front of them and took their jack pot. Without engaging these posers he cashed out his $80 ticket and we walked to the next casino only $75 down. Won a few dollars and bourbons at Harrahs and then walked to the Squat. Nice renovation but there were still creepy Imperial Place hoodoos in the air. Drank a few Makers at the nice sports bar while playing bartop VP. Lucked out, (euphemistically known, on this board as positive variance- no aneurisms, please! - everyone knows variance is neither negative nor positive), with each of us hitting a 4ok. Sarge played a few passes on the craps table and left the Squat a few dollars ahead. Into Paris, another bourbon each and then turning to home. doubling back through Ballys. We were smashed by this time, trying to maintain respectable comportment in public. I was thinking of balloon animal hats and tempted to yahoo without inhibition. We played craps for about forty five minutes. We both doubled our buy in. Sarge wanted to color-up but I insisted on gorging at the trough. Consequently losing and winning and losing the whole bankroll two or three times. It was a long, painful walk back to our hotel. “But now I only hear its melancholy, long, withdrawn roar, retreating to the breath of the night wind, down the vast edges drear and naked shingles of the world.”
Monday, we suffered our way to Cosmo joined the player’s club, played down $25 free play and ate at the Wicked Spoon Champagne Brunch. I nursed a hangover at the Mirage’s pool all day, the mind is its own self and in itself can make a hell of heaven or a heaven of hell. Sarge finished his project in the room. We laid low in the casino, overslept, walking on our 6:00a departing flight as the door was closing.
I played $1 JOB on the strip and drew a straight flush and several 4Oks. It is now hard to find 8/6 JOB at that minimum on Las Vegas Avenue. I am still looking for my first Royal.
Sarge and I are planning a return trip in May to celebrate his graduation from grad school and my birthday shuffle into the seventh decade. I am hoping to bring my brother, the Commander, to celebrate our 30th anniversary of driving across the county and stopping in LV for several days on the way to Coronado. We stayed at the Castaways and, believe it or not, played $5 classic rules Black Jack in a packed Caesar’s Palace.
Flights have been canceled out of Atlanta on 2/12, I am still attempting to secure a couple of confirmed airline seats and surprise my wife with a quick romantic Valentine’s Day trip to LV. She loves playing Joker Poker, so we may end up playing at the D’s Vintage Room as described by Mission.
Best of Las Vegas to all.
Checking into a double queen room at the Mirage, Sarge expressed his opinion that the room was at least equal to the Golden Nugget’s Rush Tower room. Since drinking our dinner in Chicago we were starving and, essentially, ended up spending $120 for two burgers and fries at BLT. We did imbibe, sampling some beers not available in our state. I was unpleasantly surprised about being charged $14 for a ten ounce snifter of musky, skunky Belgium white ale. Couldn’t even keep the glass. Sarge, a practicing home brewer laughed when he found out the house draft was rebranded PBR. We finished the meal with a snifter of Johnny Walker Black neat. On the bright side, only 23,000 MLIFE tier credits left to earn a buffet line pass.
Sarge had to complete a grad school paper and worked every day from 9:00a to 2:00p. I enjoyed this time alone at the Mirage’s wonderful pool complex, shopping for my wife, or wandering up and down the strip playing any classic rule black jack I could find. The pickins is slim. 6:5 black jack, stingy VP and carnival games seem to have infested all casinos. Do the casino execs wonder why more tourists are now flying to Las Vegas to NOT gamble? Shame on the Mirage for eliminating red chip 3:2 black jack. In the least, call the 6:5 abomination 21. Resurrect the Las Vegas Club’s Most Liberal “21” game and place it in every strip casino.
Food.
We ate at the Cravings buffet twice, the BLT Burger once, the Wicked Spoon once, the ElCo coffee shop once, and the Three George’s Grill once. Most days I would purchase yogurt, granola and fruit in the morning and try to snack healthy during the day. Sarge jogged across the Strip on several occasions to scarf a stomach stretcher or colon clogger from McD’s or from that distressed food court under McD’s. Enjoyed the Triple George Grill. We tried to have an early dinner at Fin on Saturday after playing craps downtown. We passed the empty restaurant on the way to elevators, looked at the menu and found several dishes of interest. Calling from the room, identifying myself as a hotel guest, and requesting a table in the next fifteen minutes I was disappointed when told the first table would not be available until 9:30. We made other plans and passed the empty restaurant again on our way out of the hotel. Just for giggles I borrowed Sarge’s phone, called the restaurant, and requested a table while looking into the empty restaurant. Again, we were informed that we could not be accommodated until 9:30p. I told the greeter that I was looking into the empty restaurant, its 5:45p and none of the tables were seated. No luck. You have to appreciate Fin’s don’t-need-your-business plan.
Gambling
Reluctantly, I agreed to play craps, once or twice, with Sarge. Saturday afternoon we found ourselves buying into a $5 craps game at the Golden Nugget after playing our separate games at the ElCo. I promised to use the set that my adolescent son invented and called Snake Eyes during a recreational craps research activity around the dining room table. We found a place on either side of the stickman. There were six other players at the table. Sarge was passed the dice and held them for forty minutes. A few more people joined the table to bet numbers. Sarge killed the ten and four. I made a pass line bet with full odds with place bets on the six, eight, five and nine. Towards the end of his gargantuan roll, I bought the four and ten and was paid off. A couple of girls on his rail were jumping up and down and screeching every time he rolled a number. They started kissing him on the cheek. An Asian man, on my rail, started to press his ten place bet and was betting black on several rolls. On one bet he was paid off with six black chips. When Sarge eventually sevened out he was complimented on his roll by players and crew. One of his girlfriends was given the dice and sevened out immediately. An older man at the table complimented Sarge again on his roll and then told him that in the good-old-days the dice would have been passed back to him by grateful players. I looked at my rack and then at Sarge. We both colored-up. I cashed out with fifty three more chips than what I started with.
Late Sunday afternoon Sarge and I hatched a plan to walk south on the northbound side of strip stopping at every casino to play for free top shelf bourbon. Sunday had proved to be very profitable for me playing hit and run black jack on classic black jack rules tables. We were going to combine our loose dollars which totaled about $190 and walk/crawl from Casino Royale to Bally’s playing and drinking for as long as the money would last. Walking past a $5 craps table in our hotel Sarge announced that he had a feeling and we should play craps on the empty $5 table. We each bought in for about $90 and rolled twice. Again Sarge killed the ten and held the dice for about 35 minutes total. My two rolls lasted about 25 minutes. Betting more aggressively, I cashed out with nearly 60 more chips. We both walked back to the room and folded the new Franklins into our bankrolls.
Continuing our mission but before crossing the Strip, Sarge wanted to play at TI. Providing a brief history of TI on the short walk to the casino I was anticipating a good time. My wife and I stayed in a Petite Suite on one of our wild Vegas Vacations leaving me with many fond memories. I was impressed with the interior redesign. The hotel lobby and casino seemed airy and well lit. The casino was deserted except for the few road weary shills taking up space around the carnival games. Sarge decided to play craps while I surveyed the Black Jack pit. I didn’t survey the high roller pit, if there is one, but didn’t see one 3:2 game. “O, frabjous day! Callouh! Callay!” Three young men in balloon animal hats came charging out of the county bar to yahoo in the public space. Good job TI!!! “Hurry Up Please Its Time.” Found Sarge facing off with a management type critter in the craps pit. He was sinking into the same defensive posture that won a welterweight combative battalion championship. Approaching cautiously, out of earshot, I saw him have the final word and walk away from the pit. Following him to the cage without saying a word, he cashed out and said: Let’s get the F out of here. On our way to Casino Royal he told a story of being accosted by the box man for dice setting. The boxman asked where he learned to set the dice and how long he had he practiced. The boxman threatened to 86 him. He also claimed to have identified the first dicesetter in LasVegas and permanently banned the original dice setter for life. I doubt the boxman would believe the fact that the only time Sarge ever practiced was on my dining room table with his adolescent brother in a family research activity.
We managed our way to Casino Royal and quickly busted out. We drank several bourbons on our way to bankruptcy, not winning a bet on the craps table or on Black Jack Switch. I lost 80% of my chump change bankroll betting the $3 pass line with 20x odds. I saw a man, with a 16” tower of green chips, place to lose 8” of green on the ten. He lost the first bet and won the second when I busted out on my second bet. Sarge and I had about $30 dollars between us to carry on our mission down the strip. I hit the head and came out to see Sarge hit a big pay on a multiline slot machine. Three people immediately surrounded him claiming that he jumped in front of them and took their jack pot. Without engaging these posers he cashed out his $80 ticket and we walked to the next casino only $75 down. Won a few dollars and bourbons at Harrahs and then walked to the Squat. Nice renovation but there were still creepy Imperial Place hoodoos in the air. Drank a few Makers at the nice sports bar while playing bartop VP. Lucked out, (euphemistically known, on this board as positive variance- no aneurisms, please! - everyone knows variance is neither negative nor positive), with each of us hitting a 4ok. Sarge played a few passes on the craps table and left the Squat a few dollars ahead. Into Paris, another bourbon each and then turning to home. doubling back through Ballys. We were smashed by this time, trying to maintain respectable comportment in public. I was thinking of balloon animal hats and tempted to yahoo without inhibition. We played craps for about forty five minutes. We both doubled our buy in. Sarge wanted to color-up but I insisted on gorging at the trough. Consequently losing and winning and losing the whole bankroll two or three times. It was a long, painful walk back to our hotel. “But now I only hear its melancholy, long, withdrawn roar, retreating to the breath of the night wind, down the vast edges drear and naked shingles of the world.”
Monday, we suffered our way to Cosmo joined the player’s club, played down $25 free play and ate at the Wicked Spoon Champagne Brunch. I nursed a hangover at the Mirage’s pool all day, the mind is its own self and in itself can make a hell of heaven or a heaven of hell. Sarge finished his project in the room. We laid low in the casino, overslept, walking on our 6:00a departing flight as the door was closing.
I played $1 JOB on the strip and drew a straight flush and several 4Oks. It is now hard to find 8/6 JOB at that minimum on Las Vegas Avenue. I am still looking for my first Royal.
Sarge and I are planning a return trip in May to celebrate his graduation from grad school and my birthday shuffle into the seventh decade. I am hoping to bring my brother, the Commander, to celebrate our 30th anniversary of driving across the county and stopping in LV for several days on the way to Coronado. We stayed at the Castaways and, believe it or not, played $5 classic rules Black Jack in a packed Caesar’s Palace.
Flights have been canceled out of Atlanta on 2/12, I am still attempting to secure a couple of confirmed airline seats and surprise my wife with a quick romantic Valentine’s Day trip to LV. She loves playing Joker Poker, so we may end up playing at the D’s Vintage Room as described by Mission.
Best of Las Vegas to all.
Let down the curtain; The farce is over.
February 12th, 2014 at 4:35:34 PM
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Thanks for this. I enjoyed it. Reminds me of a few of my early Vegas trips when I still drank there.
"Dice, verily, are armed with goads and driving-hooks, deceiving and tormenting, causing grievous woe." -Rig Veda 10.34.4
February 12th, 2014 at 5:01:17 PM
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Good report, robbie; I enjoy your asides and interjected quotes. Thanks!
If the House lost every hand, they wouldn't deal the game.
February 12th, 2014 at 10:27:48 PM
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I don't understand why you think the restaurant should
have opened just for you. I can stand outside my barber
shop when it's closed and call my barber for an appointment
in 15min. I don't get miffed when he tells me he's not open
for 2 more hours. You seem personally insulted that the
place wasn't revolving around your schedule.
have opened just for you. I can stand outside my barber
shop when it's closed and call my barber for an appointment
in 15min. I don't get miffed when he tells me he's not open
for 2 more hours. You seem personally insulted that the
place wasn't revolving around your schedule.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
February 13th, 2014 at 3:52:40 AM
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Quote: EvenBobI don't understand why you think the restaurant should
have opened just for you. I can stand outside my barber
shop when it's closed and call my barber for an appointment
in 15min. I don't get miffed when he tells me he's not open
for 2 more hours. You seem personally insulted that the
place wasn't revolving around your schedule.
So Bob, have you heard the one about "if you've got nothing nice to say..."?
February 13th, 2014 at 4:00:00 AM
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Good stories! Glad to hear the Iraqi Vet son-of-your's killed 'em in Craps enough to nearly get banned! I remember your first report on your son. This seems to be turning out well.
Shame on Treasure Island for having ignorant boxmen!
Good stories on the gambling in general, I enjoyed the Craps details of course.
On another note, I agree with Bob btw. I think only people who have never run a restaurant or any kind of store would ever expect someone to open early or stay late. Those that have, sympathize to the Nth.
Shame on Treasure Island for having ignorant boxmen!
Good stories on the gambling in general, I enjoyed the Craps details of course.
On another note, I agree with Bob btw. I think only people who have never run a restaurant or any kind of store would ever expect someone to open early or stay late. Those that have, sympathize to the Nth.
Check it out! Not too many folks fluent in Victorian Poetry these days. And glad to hear your son is evidently doing so well with his education.
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/writings/doverbeach.html
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/writings/doverbeach.html
the next time Dame Fortune toys with your heart, your soul and your wallet, raise your glass and praise her thus: “Thanks for nothing, you cold-hearted, evil, damnable, nefarious, low-life, malicious monster from Hell!” She is, after all, stone deaf. ... Arnold Snyder
February 13th, 2014 at 7:14:15 AM
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Quote: EvenBobI don't understand why you think the restaurant should
have opened just for you. I can stand outside my barber
shop when it's closed and call my barber for an appointment
in 15min. I don't get miffed when he tells me he's not open
for 2 more hours. You seem personally insulted that the
place wasn't revolving around your schedule.
http://www.mirage.com/restaurants/fin.aspx
Fin lists their hours as opening at 5.
February 13th, 2014 at 12:41:05 PM
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Quote: endermikehttp://www.mirage.com/restaurants/fin.aspx
Fin lists their hours as opening at 5.
I missed that in your report. Oh wait, it's not there..
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
February 13th, 2014 at 12:55:29 PM
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Quote: EvenBobI missed that in your report. Oh wait, it's not there..
It's almost like there is this magic text box I can type questions into and it spits out answers...
February 13th, 2014 at 12:59:44 PM
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Quote: EvenBobI don't understand why you think the restaurant should
have opened just for you. I can stand outside my barber
shop when it's closed and call my barber for an appointment
in 15min. I don't get miffed when he tells me he's not open
for 2 more hours. You seem personally insulted that the
place wasn't revolving around your schedule.
How much does he charge you to trim that toupee ?
Shed not for her
the bitter tear
Nor give the heart
to vain regret
Tis but the casket
that lies here,
The gem that filled it
Sparkles yet
February 17th, 2014 at 4:49:00 PM
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Thanks, Babs. Congratulations are in order for your new appointment as Administrator. I just returned from a quick surprise Valentine’s Day trip with my wife. The trip was nearly cancelled and had to be rescheduled due to the Atlanta ice storm. Ironically, I purposely scheduled all flights through the south to avoid winter weather delays and cancellations in December. I’m tempted to write a trip report about fountain view rooms, expensive but exquisite epicurean experiences, obedient husbands, and sex museums.
Let down the curtain; The farce is over.
February 17th, 2014 at 4:59:19 PM
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Quote: teddysThanks for this. I enjoyed it. Reminds me of a few of my early Vegas trips when I still drank there.
Are you tea total in Las Vegas when you visit?
I'm having trouble keeping up with the children. My son is encouraging me to travel back to LV and celebrate his graduation from grad school. He seems to be planning another crawl despite the inherent dangers.
Let down the curtain; The farce is over.
February 17th, 2014 at 5:12:52 PM
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Quote: EvenBobI don't understand why you think the restaurant should
have opened just for you. I can stand outside my barber
shop when it's closed and call my barber for an appointment
in 15min. I don't get miffed when he tells me he's not open
for 2 more hours. You seem personally insulted that the
place wasn't revolving around your schedule.
Sorry for this late reply. I just returned from a quick surprise Valentine’s weekend in LV with my wife.
I‘m sorry you didn’t understand that this restaurant was open. I wouldn’t say I was insulted, more disappointed in being told I would have to wait four hours for a table in an empty, open restaurant. My son and I did not sulk for a minute and walked to one of the other 3,736 restaurants in Las Vegas listed in Trip Advisor. I called the greeter again, while looking into the open, empty restaurant because I found the sight of an open, empty restaurant not encouraging business or accommodating a request from a guest incongruent to my professional training as a restaurant manager.
In one of my careers I worked for an international luxury hotel corporation in the food and beverage division. In my day, as a New York Times reviewed, luxury hotel restaurant manager, I would fear receiving a phone call from the old world German General Manager demanding the justification for turning away a hotel guest who requested a table in my open, empty restaurant. I’ve been out of the food and beverage business for nearly twenty years and I wouldn’t be surprised if the old successful business models have been replaced. I don’t mind challenging restaurants or hotels to excel, redefine flexibility, exceed expectations or accommodate my schedule. If negotiations fail, I take my business elsewhere. That’s called keeping it simple stupid. KISS.
Let down the curtain; The farce is over.
