I wrote yesterday about Partner and I getting comped with an ultra-cheap vacation at Foxwoods, the big Connecticut resort.
This was at Christmastime, incidentally. We checked into the MGM Grand Hotel on the afternoon of December 25, and stayed until the morning of the 27th.
Are we pagans? Are we Satanists? Not exactly. (Although I did point out to Partner that one of the Foxwoods slogans is SATISFY YOUR CRAVINGS, which is probably not the most Christian / Christmassy slogan ever written. Also I won $66.60 at one point, which means that Satan has his eye on me.)
Partner and I had a good time, at any rate. We gambled, and ate, and wandered around, and relaxed in our very comfortable hotel room, which (we both agreed) was easily the nicest $44.50/night hotel room we’d ever stayed in.
Gamblers, and the gambling lifestyle, have always fascinated me. I like wandering around the casino and watching people. There are the “hitters” – the people who punch and kick and rub and cajole the slot-machines, to make them produce. (Sometimes it works! Most of the time it doesn’t!) There are the ultra-serious groups of people playing table games, who almost never look like they’ve fun, until – rarely – someone gets on a winning streak, and they start whooping like maniacs.
Foxwoods has for the past few years run a new series of commercials and advertisements, using images of idealized patrons and gamblers. The KING is the mature man, who gambles and then has a steak dinner. The QUEEN plays slots (she “knows how to push buttons,” according to one of their ads) and goes shopping (Foxwoods has lots of shopping). The JACK is a young man who’s out with his friends. The ACE is usually a young woman, very sure of herself.
And the JOKER is – gee, I think they kind of got rid of JOKER advertising over the past year. Probably somebody realized that the Joker wasn’t just a card, but also a Batman villain.
Foxwoods was packed at Christmastime, but I didn’t see many who resembled the people in the Foxwoods ads. I saw a few groups of older men, who probably thought they were Kings. I saw lots of tooth-impaired women with bad hair and bad skin, some of them on scooters, who might have imagined themselves Queens. I saw lots of younger skinny/overweight guys in sweatshirts who surely imagined themselves Jacks. I saw no Aces at all. (I saw lots of Jokers, though I don’t think they realized they were jokers.)
What part did Partner and I play? I’m sure we were Kings. We gambled, and we ate. We’re both over fifty.
But we were probably Jokers after all.
Bwa ha ha!
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