Where my gambling money is soon to go

PONG!

(h/t: Vegas Tripping)

Next up: the Hardie/Douglas Peace Treaty

I've been hard on him in the past, but this is an excellent post by Mark Steyn on some of the improvements that could be made to the US Justice System.

Somebody understands!

I have a couple of thoughts about the Conrad Black trial coverage, but Robert Silver over at Macleans.ca covers at least half of them a lot better than I can.

The other big thought? When it comes to trial conducted under US laws, it is best not to listen to Canadian pundits when it comes to the likely outcome (especially if they have some sort of personal relationship with one of the main defendants; this probably disqualifies 99% of all Canadian media.)

This is what they call a teaser

Without tipping my Chicago trip report too much, I can say that it will include a review of Cheeseburger In Paradise, along with an expert's answer to the question "If I hit it with a hammer, will that fix it?"

Start the petition for ridonkulous

Congratulations to "ginormous" (gi-nor-mous adj. extremely large; humongous) for making the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Also, congratulations go out to crunk, sudoku, perfect storm, telenovela and my personal favourite, "smackdown" (smack-down noun 1. the act of knocking down or bringing down an opponent 2. a contest of entertainment wrestling 3. a decisive defeat 4. a confrontation between rivals or competitors). I always knew that the Rock would redefine the English language as we know it.

The various classes of clothing

I remember when clothing was classified by formal, business casual and casual. Now, it's out of control.

If you go to Rate Vegas and look at the attire that should be worn in the restaurants, you will find "Any Attire", "Resort Upscale" and "Jacket Required". This dovetails pretty well with the formal/buscas/cas clasification. But today, I just got a response from a restaurant that I made reservations at. In the confirmation, they stated that the dress code is "smart casual". I've been there previously, so I know what's acceptable and what's not, but still, what would you classify "smart casual" as?

Reality Game Show Tip of the Day

If you are in a house with your ex, and you have freaked out continually about your ex being in the house (including accusing him of giving you an STD), it might be a good idea not to immediately run to somebody to break the confidence of other people.

(Granted, Joe is safe this week, but this will be remembered and come back to haunt him.)