Libertarian Librarian

I was. What a whacked out opening NFL weekend. Totally nuts. First off, it started with me in Vegas, which was quite the trip. You really haven't felt your head spinning completely off your neck until you've tried to watch eight different early NFL games at the same time. While running on half your normal sleep. And slightly hung over.

I highly recommend it.

Secondly, what in the Blue Blazes is going on with Miami beating Denver and San Francisco beating St. Louis? Are you kidding me? Good thing Mike Shanahan is a genius, or you'd have to start to wonder if he's really a very good coach or if he just got lucky by getting John Elway and Terrell Davis together for that two year run to the Super Bowl.

Thirdly, what in the Sam Hill was going on with Miami beating Denver and S.F. beating St. Louis. Oh wait, I already said that. Well, that's okay, it was so bizarre and hard to conceive of, that it bore repeating.

Fourthly, good for the Saints, even if their win did kill my shot at winning my weekly football pool. As Gym Jim noted, the LSU/Saints parley was a winner this weekend. Both catching points, both winning a tight but well-played game on the road. Of course, the entire year is going to be on the road for the Saints, and possibly for LSU as well. How much of an effect that will have longterm remains to be seen, but for this weekend, anyway, they both came up aces.

Speaking of aces-- I love the poker room at The Mirage. I like the poker room at the Stardust as well, but the action at The Mirage was just awesome. Lots of young college punks who think they know how to play poker. Gotta love it.

The blackjack dealers at the Imperial Palace, however, were not so grand. But you can't win them all.

Fifthly, the only consolation to us Packer fans, after Green Bay's miserable performance up in Detroit this weekend, is that Minnesota and Chicago looked nearly as inept as we did. Not much of a consolation, but there it is. The NFC North is the early favorite to be the worst division in football.

Finally, and completely unrelated to football, there really is nothing quite like wandering the Strip in Vegas at 6 in the morning just as the sun is coming up over the mountains. Cool enough to be comfortable, zero humidity, a soft, reflective light lending a golden glow to the water in front of the Bellagio and the soaring towers of the Venetian. And, of course, the crowning touch of a new dawn rising on the hundreds, nay thousands, of discarded nudie girl cards that had been distributed, then discarded, the evening before.

Vegas, baby!