Yesterday morning cousin Squeegee came to the house and asked if I wanted to go to a casino for my birthday. It's been a year since I was at a casino, on my last birthday. My daughter had sent me some money for said b'day and normally cautious me was gonna hold onto it. But just as Squeegee showed up, Obama was on the radio talking about WAR and THE ECONOMY and CHANGES IN THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM.

I'm sick of it, sick of bad news, so I said let's go. I asked Squeegee if she'd take her car because she's a good driver, and I'd fill it up with gas. So off we go like two gooney birds on a blisteringly hot day, in her car which I soon realized needed a tune up super bad. At stop signs it chugged and sputtered and I was afraid we'd break down somewhere and die from the heat.

But we made it to Ocean Springs, crossed the new bridge over the Bay and into Biloxi and went to the first casino. I don't like casino hopping--just go to one, throw your money away down the throat of a slot machine, and go home.
But I did win twice what I went with, and split it with Squeegee.
Usually at the casinos you see a lot of Vietnamese. The U.S. got them out of Vietnam and settled them on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. They and their descendants are shrimp fishermen. Southerners don't like them. The native shrimpers detest them. And this year there are no shrimp, the boats are idle. Times are hard when there's no Vietnamese at the casinos. What was there were elderly in their scooters with oxygen tanks.

On the way back we stopped for a sandwich at The Shed, a dive featured on Diners, Drive In, and Dives on the Food Network. It was worse than a dive--it was dirty shack that reminded me of an outhouse. No air conditioning, junk--and I mean junk--everywhere, swatting a fly off our expensive sandwiches--how did that place get its cachet to be on the Food Network? I mean I was raised in a dump like that and here I was, back in a dump again. Tourists might find it quaint and kitschy and campy, but I have a better name for it. Bye for now, susil