Last Word

I was in St. Martin, heading for the casinos in St. Maarten on the other side of the island. If you stay on the French side of the island, and play on the Dutch side, after hitting the casinos you literally go to sleep in another country. The disadvantage is that the casino won’t pay for your trip. The advantage — the food is the best in the Caribbean and the beaches are topless, or nude if you are in a hurry to die of skin cancer.

The road is a twisty, two-lane affair with often heavy traffic. My companion was giving me a hard time about my speed. I pointed at the line of cars behind us and said, “I’m only going 25 miles an hour.” She pointed to the speedometer and said, “I can see the speed, you’re going 40.” I pointed out that the speedometer was calibrated in kilometers per hour and 40 kph is 25 mph. She said, “It doesn’t matter — 40 is 40!” I wondered if you could get a speedometer calibrated in knots.

The moral of the story is that in casinos as in life, perception is often more important than reality.

 © 2009 Norman Wattenberger