It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that HST is my literary lighthouse. So it seems fitting (after recently suggesting in my Substack chat that perhaps I dust off my long-dormant journalism degree and start writing again) that having 6+ hours to kill in Vegas would be the thing that inspires me to open my writer dashboard and click that bright orange “New post” button for the first time in nearly a year.
I wish I could promise that this will be a regular thing but I can’t in good conscience do that. Writer’s block has always been something I’ve struggled with. It’s the reason I knew early on that I’d never be a proper journo and it could very well be the reason I’ll never be considered a prolific stand-up either. Like the Good Doctor, drugs & alcohol have always been great at jumpstarting my creativity but having read nearly every publicly available word of Hunter’s writing in my 20’s, I got a very clear picture of what a chemically-fueled writer’s life looks like and I knew it wasn’t for me. At least not as an everyday strategy. (Plus it’s hard to get up early when you’re hungover in your 30’s & beyond and the morning is, for the most part, the only time the waves are good in SoCal.)
David Letterman, whose face would also appear on my Mt. Rushmore of inspirations, once said “There is no off position on the genius switch.” Which I might agree with, though I would add “…but there certainly is a sleep-mode.” And if the occasional morning dose of psilocybin and Irish coffee is what one needs to “wake up” then so be it…
So here we are…the micro has been dosed, the Maker’s & Bailey’s have been added to the java and the first Mets bet of the season has been placed ($200 on the moneyline for those keeping score at home). We’ve even got a Miller Lite on standby, because it’s Day 1 of “Beer & a Ballgame Season” after all and also as a subtle reminder of why Dirty Sports is on Substack in the first place.
The game has just been put on the main screen of the Harrah’s sportsbook and the soothing sounds of Gary, Keith & Ron can be subtly heard under the beeping & booping1 from the sea of slot machines that surround the sportsbook peninsula.
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