gambling raze he blew an eighty thousand dollar inheritance at the casino. money that could have paid for the new floor he needs and then some. he knew it was getting bad when the only thing he had to eat around the house was peanut butter, jelly, and some bread. he stopped for a while. now he's back at it. three times a week. only this time it's his pension money he's burning through. we went there to have dinner with him once. they gave him a gift certificate. their way of saying, "thanks for handing over your nest egg so we could make ourselves an omelette." it took us an hour to find him. the food was pretty decent. the service was shit. i shook the hand of a man with a voice like reginald veljohnson and the grip strength of a grizzly bear. he'd won a good chunk of change the day before. you could see it in his smile. he was in love with everyone. i saw old men and women with no one left to love and nowhere else to be. drawn faces. dead eyes. feeding what money they still had to machines that sucked out their souls one token at a time. after we ate, i watched him lose fifty dollars in thirty seconds. he thought it was funny. 230102 what's it to you? who go blather from