PopeInnocentXIV

I had posted this in an unofficial AMA thread last year but would like your take on it.

What's going on here? This is a picture I took at the Tomb in October 1999:

http://i.imgur.com/AaKweJj.jpg

It's not cropped or 'shopped or anything. There was no guard pacing out front for a good ten minutes. The guard was doing the usual pacing (21 steps, turn, salute, hold 21 seconds, and all that), and then he went into that little guard shack just out of frame to the left, and didn't come out for a long time. After about five minutes I thought it was strange enough that I took a picture. This went on for about ten minutes in total. It's been 16 years so I don't remember if when he emerged he resumed pacing or if he was relieved just then. I've never gotten an explanation for what that was all about.

It was earlier than that. I was in the DC area for only a couple of days and remember watching Robin Ventura's Grand Slam Single while I was there. So probably between October 16 and 18.

Back in the day my friends and I would play cards. We would rotate through a bunch of different poker variations. Then we started making up our own games. Our finale would be a combination of peek-a-boo, chase the ace, follow the queen, and a few other things, played with the entire deck.

One weekend the three of us we were down in Atlantic City at the poker table talking about all our different variations. One buddy asked the dealer if he could deal games like that. The dealer replied, "If you let us take the rake, I'll deal anything you want." (We ended up not going through with it.)

Ever had anyone ask you that? A bunch of friends at one poker table asking you to deal games of their choice?

Lots of casinos have lessons. I took a craps lesson at Monte Carlo in Vegas some years back. It was early in the day (~11 am).

What if you called me up and when I answered I just started speaking to you in Italian?