Banality Fair Goes To Atlantic City

Spiral Stairs, Joseph K and related others hopped on a bus this frigid morning and headed to Atlantic City. Two things of note:

• Against the basic odds, the Banality Fair gang all won. We commandeered a Blackjack table for four hours and everyone came out in the black. We had two alternating dealers. Marie was surly, her attitude made worse by her having what appeared to be the plague (at one point, she wretched out something viscous, drippy and awful), but she gutted it out and dealt some good cards with a salty efficiency. Ren, on the other hand, was marginally more pleasant but treacherous, basically getting a 19, 20 or 21 almost every hand. Spiral Stairs and wife basically doubled their money; Joseph K almost tripled his buy in. But, Banality Fair did not do nearly as well as Spiral Stairs' wife's colleague who won an absurd amount of money playing many black (i.e., $100) chips.

• Then, there was Blanche. My goodness. She was a bartender at one of the bars at the Tropicana who not only dispensed overpriced, weak drinks, but also sang at the same time. Well and without missing a note. "Did you every know that your my hero...what'll you have?" "A vodka tonic." A nod. "Your everything I would every need." Or whatever that lyric is. Pours drink. "I could fly higher than an eagle...$6.50 please." "Keep the change." "Because you are the wind beneath me wings." At one point, she was processing three complex orders at the same time while singing "Boogie Oogie Oogie" (or whatever that damn song is called) at the same time, which blew at least my mind. She kept that up the whole six hours we were at the casino. She possessed a rare, unknowable skill that was simply brilliant.