KEEP YOUR MONEY IN YOUR POCKET

Possibly the only good that has come of the virus shutdown. I have described St. Louis in these pages as Little-Las Vegas-On-Mississippi. (And the Missouri, too.) There are five good-sized casino-hotels ringing the metro area. When this was first legalized the casinos literally had to be riverboats, you know, actually floating. Now they only have to be kinda sorta near the rivers, allowing for much bigger operations.

Lumiere Place, a big one, is just north of downtown. The complex has a very expensive Four Seasons Hotel. I know there are people who like it and can control their spending, but, like the lottery, I've always thought casinos were ethically indefensible, preying on the most vulnerable. But, hey, this is America! Business ethics are an oxymoron.

Note from the Language Police: shouldn't the verb in the next to last line be "are"? Or does the whole place consider itself a collective noun?               

THAT'S A RELIEF

Time to be back on the streets of The Lou, although I may still run some Costa Rica pix if I'm short of material. Anyway, my office is a couple of blocks from our football dome without a football team. (Many Americans would know the story and nobody else will care.) The Rolling Stones are going on tour again this year (what, with their walkers?) and it was announced yesterday that they would play here in June. On Wednesday the big LED sign in front of the stadium had a teaser display of the iconic lips and tongue logo with the single word "When?". I walked over yesterday, hoping to find some version of that but no luck.

We have a lot of casinos around here, six, I believe, on or next to the rivers. The one downtown is cut off from the city by a major highway but there is an entrance and underground tunnel across from the dome. Couldn't pass up this image. We hope the casino is exciting enough without gunplay.         

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

I'm going to run a few days of B&Ws. You can make wonderful ones in Photoshop from color originals. It's something I've been working on lately.

This is the entrance to a tunnel that runs under a highway to the Lumiere Place casino. It is located across the street from the football stadium. Today's caption is the famous inscription on the gates of Hell in Dante's Inferno: abandon all hope ye who enter here. No secret that I don't like casinos.

Madeleine Monday

                     

Looks like mom put her up to this. I hope it represents either her adult attitude toward authority or aptitute for playing the trumpet.
                        

Let's Go

. . . shoot some new pictures. I am so out of material. The week hasn't been conducive to hitting the streets.

So, another shot from the window of the new office. The right side is the five star Four Seasons Hotel and Lumiere Place Casino. You can go see a show! On the left is the new Stan Musial Bridge across the Mississippi. It will open next month.

I have no idea how they do the light effects on the top and left side of the hotel. During the day it looks like a bland brick cockscomb. (The architecture is, frankly, pretty dull.) Maybe there are LEDs on the brick. They can display anything. This one promotes the local hockey team, the St. Louis Blues.         

Oops! What Happened To The Arch?

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Oopsie. Work has been so heavy this week that I forgot what's supposed to happen on what day. Now things have calmed down and I've returned to my senses.

I've mentioned that, in a way, St. Louis is like Little-Las-Vegas-On-Mississippi. We have seven good sized casinos in the area. This one is in East St. Louis, Illinois, directly across the river from downtown. When the sign says "loosest slots," it means that this place claims to have the highest ratio of payback to money wagered on slot machines anywhere in the country. Note to math majors: if P is the amount of payback and $ is the total amount thrown into the machines, P < $, always. Every day, every machine.

Death Of A Casino

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Same boat as in yesterday's picture. Once a grand cruise ship of the Mississippi River, the Admiral has been moored at riverside and used as a casino for some years. Its hull is no longer seaworthy and it cannot go out on excursions. Competition from bigger, newer casinos has killed it off. It will be closed by the end of June 2010.

I'll miss the silver boat. I have good memories of riding it during my student days. I won't miss the casino. Not that I've ever been in it but I think it's terrible social policy.

And speaking of which, here's today's strip from one of my favorite comics, Pearls Before Swine:

TOMORROW: The purpose of all this effort.

Along The Mississippi

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No more ice in the river, no more snow on the levee. I was standing beneath the Arch looking north when I shot this. Don't fall in, kid! The current is mean.

That's Eads Birdge in the middle background, of course. Behind it is The Admiral, the great river excursion boat where all of St. Louis went for a special time back when I was in college and before. The hull has not been seaworthy for years. It's been a casino for quite a while, dying slowly now in the face of newer, bigger, glitzier neighbors. Which reminds me - yesterday, the 11th one in the STL metro area opened on the river in the southern suburbs. We're a regular little Las Vegas-on-Mississippi. Local promoters plan to market our town as a gambling destination, like the aforementioned desert illusion, Atlantic City and the Mississippi Gulf coast. Is that a good thing for the region? Tell us what you think.

TOMORROW: The Idiotarod. Not Ididerod. Idiotarod

At Least Someone Is

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Who's hiring in St. Louis during the recession? The big casino, Lumiere Place, is. As I've mentioned here, there are a shocking number of these in our Midwestern city. Business must be good - a fool and his money...

The unfortunate large building in the background is the Four Seasons Hotel, which is attached to the casino. We stayed there once. It's really swanky inside but the exterior is an eyesore, IMHO, with awful, garish lighting at night.

Today is a travel day. Heading for a legal conference in my specialty in Washington, DC, this afternoon, then up to my home town, New York, for the weekend. As the man said, if I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere. So, either a STL picture on Wednesday or a late photo from the nation's capital, the Arch on Thursday and then a few days of East Coast fun.

Hazard

I've mentioned that our town has a bunch of casino-hotels. The newest and most opulent is Lumiere Place. It's got a Four Seasons hotel in it. It's got a couple of preposterously expensive restaurants and some downscale ones for the masses. We ate at their pan-Asian restaurant for our annual Stupid Bowl dinner out his year. (creatively named Asia) Won't be returning. Oh, and the architecture is ugly. There will be a photo of that some time.

Their newest feature is a giant video advertising sign, the kind you see at American sports stadiums or along the Las Vegas Strip. It's smack on the main highway that runs from downtown to the airport and on to Kansay City, really in your face. This picture has stirred some controversy: an attractive young lady in a hotel bedroom, holding up a slinky negligee. The shopping bag on the bed is from L'ove [sic], the casino's, um, kinky boutique. (But as Tina Turner says, what's love for to do with it? BTW, Tina spent her adolescence here in STL.). See picture below. The display is said to be causing traffic problems on the highway.

I love the weird color effect of photos of the sign. The image is clear to the human eye but the colors are crazy and distorted in the click of a camera shutter. If anyone knows the technical reason for this, please tell us.

TOMORROW: special effects

How Natural Disaster Can Help Keep Your Family Out Of Debt

I've mentioned in the past that St. Louis has become Little Las Vegas on Mississippi, with six major casinos in the area. I think it's horrifying, the stupidest, laziest, most regressive way the states can raise money. New casinos result in a notable rise in bankruptcies. My bipolar clients just can't handle them. Here, however, we have an effective method of silencing the giant sucking sound on the region's wallets. Even a flood can do some good. This is just the entrance, though. The casino itself floats behind on a old riverboat no longer fit to cruise.

The waters are now dropping. A final flood picture of one side of the casino appears below. Later this week we will show a particularly objectionable feature of the newest and most lavish of them all, Lumiere Place.

TOMORROW: Velo

Poker Face

Yesterday, we talked about how Ronald McDonald appealed to children, using his cute clownishness to lure them into a life of obesity, diabetes and all sorts of other loathsome diseases. Several commenters agreed. Today's snare on the youth of America is different (although perhaps less effective). This picture was taken at the Arthritis Walk fundraiser a couple of weeks ago. My law firm sponsored a water station along the 5 km route. The water was provided courtesy of Ameristar Casino. Not many people outside the area know it, but St. Louis has become Little Las Vegas on Missississi, with six sizable casinos, three in the downtown area. This cute tot is getting his first taste of ka-ching. His expression looks like he is playing Texas Hold-Em in one of those ubiquitous TV poker tournaments.

TOMORROW: When the pressure becomes unbearable...