Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 10, 2016

More & more interesting!

.Good morning guys!

So, The Apparatus used to own all the casinos. I guess that kind of means it was their money in the hidden vault? Anyway, apparently the government runs the casino(s) in this Cuba. (We decided a few days back, here in the comments area, that the government banned all gambling in our Cuba.)

Maybe it’s just the surfeit of moustachios, but could “Kiko” be the son or grandson of Ferdinand?

Familial resemblance might be a reason why he masks his features.

.Coming soon. Details to follow...Note: this is a computer, not Vista Bill’s faithful wonder horse as seen in DT.

Oh, and “Estrella” means “Star,” by the way.

.OK. Here’s what transpired… Comet, my ‘dream machine’ that I devoted nearly nine years to perfecting, stopped dead on 2/23/16. I could not determine the cause of the failure so any repair was beyond my ability. Since I had Shadow (Dell Optiplex USFF) as Comet’s backup, I immediately began transitioning my programs, software, and files to Shadow. Fortunately, the first attempt (40+ hours) was almost a total success! A few things slipped by my tired old 81 year old brain and 22ph came to the rescue with solutions. The one final problem was solved on Monday. I then needed to decide if I should pay to have my nine year old Comet repaired (I suspect a hardware failure), or retire Comet and use Shadow as my new ‘dream machine’. Since a repair would be costly ($200+, I would guess), I decided to retire Comet. Since I do not turn my computers off, Comet had more than 78,000 hours of operation. I officially retired Comet on 3/9/16 and immediately set about purchasing a backup desktop. That will be “Comet 2”. Comet 2 will be a Refurbished Dell Optiplex SFF running Vista. I also have Shadow 2, my Dell Latitude (Vista) Laptop. Later this morning I will finalize the details regarding hardware for Comet 2. .So, now you know what is going on in Vista Bill’s 81 year old computer geek’s life! .Someday, I might make an attempt to repair Comet.

.Good night all.

A logical plot point – if not obvious.

Not just the Queen of Aces, but the famous Black Diamonds!!

< Hopefully, Specs, you’ll have better luck than Geraldo Rivera did in Chicago… >

Why did everything make it through the translator except “la revolucion”?

The Mustang Ranch was forfeited to the federal government in 1999 following the owner’s convictions for tax fraud, racketeering and other crimes. It was auctioned off and reopened in 2005 5 miles to the east under the same name but different ownership.

There’s a story in our storySet on Casino RowEstrella one hot night clubFor night owls in the know.Try your hand at pokerDraw another cardGambling is so easy‘Tis winning that is hard.Strike out at the craps tableIf ye roll snake eyesToss an eight the hard wayAbscond with the big prize.There are rumors of a vaultFilled with cash and goldSpecs a foolish spectacleMust do as he is told.Gaze through magic glassesAdd vision to your sightStay above ground breathingIf what you see is right.There’s a story in our storySet on Casino RowRumor, fact or legendSee the vault or friends turn foe.

Contrary to a popular urban legend circulated by email, the Mustang Ranch was never operated by the US government

Gweedo happily stated,Yay for the New Comet, Bill !-—————————————————————————-.I’m very happy, Gweedo! I just talked to the supplier and ironed out the details. They will ship later today.

@AnyFace:About 3 days ago, you asked if the Mannix episode where he is temporarily blinded had run yet. I just looked at the schedule for the H&I channel; it is supposed to run at 3:00 pm EST today! Hope you see this in time.

JPuzzleWhiz stated,bright idea of restoring the computer to a point just three days ago-——————————————————————-.System Restore is a life saver!.I am connected to a Belkin 3,156 joules surge protector that is plugged into an APC battery backup. Much of everything in my condo is protected by surge protectors. I witnessed the damage that was done by an electrical fault a few years ago. Many of the other occupants of my building lost everything. I suffered no damage.

You could go there though Canada so that must mean they had some kind of relations with the place ?

Lots of countries have full relations with Cuba, including Canada, but the United States isn’t one of them.

.Gweedo, Abner wants you to try out his new coffin top computer…..It uses Windows 30 operating system!

Gweedo responded, …I had to Resort to the Restore yesterday myself.-——————————————————————————-.Too many years ago, I used Old Granddad as a system restore (for myself)..You’ll quickly notice that Abner uses a “real” mouse on his coffin top machine!

As I recall, the USA put a lot of pressure on Canadian companies that wanted to do business in Cuba. Basically they said that you could make a choice: do business in Cuba or do business in the US, you can’t do both. And being good businessmen they chose the larger market. There were also American companies that had Canadian subsidiaries, like the Canadian branch of GM’s Electro-Motive Division that were told that if they dealt with Cuba they’d be criminally liable.It seems odd that the United States has treated Cuba far worse than they have treated Vietnam, but that’s just me.

Ferdinand of the Star Casino seems one of those mythical figures of the pre-communist era in Cuba whose failsafe safe might be just as mythical. But DJ and his henchman Mendoza seem to have something that they want Specs to scope out. As they say in Spanish, Who Knows?

Last night I happened to be watching TBS in the evening, and an ad for Conan O’Brien came on. They flashed a picture of what looked like a classic Dick Tracy profile, with his wrist up as he talked into his radio.I used the rewind and pause functions, and after a couple of tries, I was able to freeze the frame. It turned out to be a drawing of Conan’s own profile, in a Dick Tracy yellow hat and coat. Although it was clearly a caricature of Conan, it also looked surprisingly like Tracy.I’m not sure what the point was – maybe Conan is a Dick Tracy fan?