Originally Posted by
redietz
I just do not get it with Alan.
He was/is a fine journalist. A fine, experienced writer. But not when it comes to gambling. It's goddamn amazing. I'm not sure what the problem is exactly, but it must fall into either (1) having lost so much money that he just can't grasp that some people have not or (2) a kind of intellectual arrogance -- if he can't do it, nobody can. Both options seem ridiculous, as certainly Alan can't be so invested in his losses that they overwhelm his judgement. And he knows he's not the expert on everything. If journalism teaches you anything, it's that.
KewlJ was witness to the whole "package" ordeal. I sent Alan copies of standings from years of "Tipsters or Gypsters?" published in Las Vegas, copies of pages from Playbook newsletter (distributed nationally on newsstands for decades) with my ads and records, copies of interviews I'd done published in regular newspapers, published op-eds I'd written regarding gambling, a copy of a paper I presented at the National Conference on Gambling and Risk-Taking, an article published in The Humanist, all stuff that couldn't be faked and could all be verified with a couple of phone calls. He wanted no part of it.
That "tracking two tables" with KewlJ was the worst of irrationality, though. I used to be able to watch six or more football games simultaneously and keep ballpark stats in my head for every game and know down-and-distance for every game without any graphics. Looking back, that's seems much more difficult than tracking two tables.