Monte Carlo on fire.....

I'm sure everybody has heard about this by now. The good news is nobody was hurt.

The bad news is the whole place is still shut down while repairs are made. MGM-Mirage has now instituted a hiring freeze for all new employees. Sucks for me because I just applied for a job at the Luxor last week! Hopefully it opens back up later this week (as they say it will) so current employees can return to work and new employees can continue to be hired. For MGM to institute a hiring freeze is a pretty big deal given that they own about half the f'ing places on the Strip.

I thought this was funny, from an article in the local paper.

Inside the Monte Carlo poker room, the gambling didn't stop even after a casino floor television came on with live footage of the fire, said Rich Vetterl, a 53-year-old chemist from North Carolina.

"It was strange playing poker and watching the building burn," he said. "It was almost like being on the Titanic as it was going down. It was surreal."

After several minutes, the dealer at the table waved her arms, stopped play and told everybody to evacuate. The poker players calmly stood up and left, with many taking time to cash out their chips, he said.

Good to know that people have their priorities straight.