foggy hilltop:
something moves,
striped by trunks.
Foggy Hilltop [Haiku]
3
DAILY PHOTO: Old DeKalb Courthouse
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Cloud Shadow [Haiku]
Sneaky [Haiku]
DAILY PHOTO: Pai River
BOOK: “Lucky Devils” by Kit Chellel
Lucky Devils: The True Story of Three Rebel Gamblers Who Beat the Odds and Changed the Game by Kit ChellelMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site — Simon & Schuster
Release Date: April 14, 2026
This book provides a fascinating look at the field of “advantage gambling” from the 1970’s through the 1990’s / early 2000’s. Advantage gambling is the use of applied mathematics and computing to snatch up part of the advantage in odds that normally accrues to “the house” (i.e. the casino / gambling establishment) to make gambling not so much a sucker’s game. Card counting is a specific variety of this undertaking. This story is largely told through the life stories of three prominent advantage gamblers, Bill Benter, Bill Nelson, and Rob Reitzen. While the book starts with card counting in blackjack, it broadens beyond that — and even beyond the casino — into horse races and online poker.
As one reads about the activities of these gamblers, one also learns about intriguing, related subjects such as the mafia’s hand in Vegas, the development of computing technology (as it applied to gaining advantage,) and even how a younger Trump managed the challenging task of losing money through casino ownership.
If you’re interested in how smart people have tried to beat the house, and the risks that that entails, I’d highly recommend this book. I found the book compelling from start to finish.
View all my reviews
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
PROMPT: A Year Ago
Definitely not. There are – literally – robots on the streets where I am today. There were cows on the streets where I was a year ago.
I don’t find picturing the future to be a productive endeavor. A year from now the robot wave will have hit Bangalore and cattle in the streets may be a fixture of Atlanta (because raising one’s own cow will be the only way to afford beef.) [Not to mention, there’s a significant chance that I’ll be in neither of those places.]
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
DAILY PHOTO: Cyberpunk on the Beltline
PROMPT: Skills or Lessons
Shopping for crazy. I’ve become aware that – during some time periods, it’s mandated that there be one bat-shit insane person per subway car — and that, if there are more than that, they need to spread out evenly and give the stage to one among them — a Car Crazy Champion, if you will. After riding in a car with a urine-drenched crack addict who paced the length of the car eating (and sloshing) some pungent food from a Styrofoam container, I realized I should have been in the next car with the very nicely dressed and clean-cut man in what seemed to be a self-created and self-imposed uniform reading aloud from the Bible. I no longer concern myself with what car gets me closest to the appropriate exit, rather I shop around for the least objectionable crazy.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Shades of Green [Haiku]
sunlit garden
to distant mountains —
every shade of green.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 