This Morning at the Nugget

The Carson Nugget has been a part of the Cartoon City for as long as I can remember (including my one-month employment there as a busboy whilst the dinosaurs roamed the earth).

Went to breakfast there this morning and saw interesting sights.

- They took out the gift shop in the northeast corner and are replacing it with an enclosed, smoke-free slot area. Good idea!

- As I was meandering through the main floor, a woman walks the sit-down video poker machines. She's not much of a looker, but this one senior citizen dude who should know better actually swivels in his chair and gawks at her. It was pathetically obvious and in poor taste. This is absolutely true: I almost smacked him with my newspaper. Sir, if you're going to gawk at the lovely ladies, be subtle. That's what peripheral vision is for. You're making it harder on the rest of us.

- Walked by a bank of television sets. On the left set, Sean Salisbury of ESPN Football is demonstrating a play in the studio. On the right, Sean is helping out on the live broadcast of Mike and Mike in the Morning. That is way too much Sean Salisbury for anyone.

- For the first time ever, I got a senior citizen discount without asking. WTF??!! Do I look 55? Aw crap! Back to the gym tonight.

Moving on...

In this morning's San Francisco Chronicle (the one that was almost used as an assault weapon), there's an article by another blinking idiot who doesn't have the brains to stay out of prison. Whoops. I mean, another fine member of the higher-ed community that advocates college education for inmates...just like me. Her experience and perspective on the issue nearly mirrors my own. It's a good read and here's the important sentence on the pros/cons about providing such services:

Once freed, parolees may well lack the resources (time, money, education) to support themselves any better than they did before they landed in jail. Nothing has changed but the year on the calendar.

This is what I tell people: "Would you rather they be on the streets with what they've learned from me or from what they've learned from other inmates?"