Apple understood this before anyone else. It didn’t build its own AI model, it licensed Google’s Gemini for about $1 billion a year. Why spend $100 billion building a factory when outsourcing costs a billion? And if a better model appears next year, Apple just switches vendors…Apple didn’t miss the AI revolution. It just bet that the winners won’t be the ones who build the infrastructure. They’ll be the ones who own the customer and no one else on Earth owns the best customers.

Destination: Our ‘current’ home of Grapevine, Texas. We had dutifully helped complete a cross-country move for a close family member and were ‘somewhat’ happy to get back home (more on that soon).

After choking down some subpar airport coffee we boarded our American Airlines Boeing 787 flight and 2 hours later landed at DFW International Airport.

(NOTE: after many false starts over the years I was finally able to fly the ‘Dreamliner’…and was promptly disappointed…more on this in a future installment).

25 minutes pass by as we wait to get off the double-aisle plane: I am, of course, always amused as I watch people inadvertently drop baggage on their head trying to get off. 

We finally make our way to the baggage claim area. 20 minutes later the ‘airport lady’ barks on the intercom (and I paraphrase of course): ‘Your bags aren’t in carousel 1…they are now going to come off in carousel 3. Go there right now or your bags will end up in Bangladesh’.

We lumber over to the other bag carousel with the other 150 lemmings (before you get all twitchy I include us in that list) and wait again.

At the new bag thingy I look over and there’s a 5’ish-year old with caked Spaghetti-O’s sauce on his cheeks leaning over and putting his hands in the carousel. I look next to him and there’s Mom…her nose stuffed in her phone having nary an acknowledgement of Junior’s antics in his new sandbox.

So from the title I’m sure you can guess what followed: Yep…in ‘J-Pasta’s quest to grab every bag on the conveyor he falls right in and starts his fun-filled journey on the next cargo flight to Dubai.

Worry not, Mom finally got done posting a boob-selfie on SnapCrackle and casually pulled out the kiddo…without even the slightest fear that Junior might be the next batch of canned pasta.

People Have Become Numb at the Airport…Can You Blame Them?

Just like Mom of the Year, everyone else wandering around in Terminal ‘they-don’t-care-about-us’ has given up hope that airlines (and most airports) are even going to fake that they are trying to do a good job and get flyers to their chosen destination.

Nope. Instead it’s the usual BS of ‘come on down to Scam International where we’ll cancel your flight at the very last minute because we can.’

Is is just me, or has customer service completely disappeared post ‘illness’?

Don’t answer that, because I will:

Yes, it has. I think the bulk of society is so utterly beaten down and deflated from the last 3-plus years that on one cares about much anymore. However, I am an optimist, and I think that this will change.

Know this though: It’s not going to be easy. And there are powers that be that want you to remain ‘down and out’.

Don’t let them put their thumb on you.

Roadtrip.

Laughlin.

[UPDATE: This article was written 2 years ago but I have reprinted for this site. The message is still just as relevant. Feel free to add in the comments below…]

Those are two words that always go well together…kinda like peanut butter and jelly, or a stripper and an empty man’s wallet…

Now, for some of you, Laughlin might be unfamiliar: Laughlin is a small gambling town in Nevada right on the Colorado River across from another possibly unfamiliar (for some) town named Bullhead City. Either way, just know that Laughlin is a very miniature version of Las Vegas that has a distinctly older and less hectic demographic where everything is also distinctly cheaper (than Vegas).

It’s a great low-key weekend for the bargain vacationers as well as the road traveler moving through town.

As it turned out, I had to deliver some high value items there for a client so it gave me the perfect excuse todo a quick one-nighter at Don Laughlin’s Riverside Resort and Casino.

The Riverside is actually the first resort built there in the 60’s (and hence named after the town’s founder)and it shows: Quite a bit old looking but I get the feeling the owners want to keep the old ‘saloon’ feel intact.

It just felt old to me…but I digress…

I check in, settle in to my room and relax for a bit before meandering down to the casino. Mind you, I’m not much of a gambler anymore but I still love casinos.

Go figure.

As early evening approached, I took a leisurely stroll down the Laughlin Riverwalk and worked up a bit of thirst.

I meandered my way back to the Riverside…found one of the several casino bars you’d typically find to keep the slot players lubricated, and plopped my rear down and ordered a beer.

Failure to Comply: When it’s Painfully Obvious Drinking and Face Coverings Are Mutually Exclusive

I pulled my mask down off of my face to start enjoying my beverage.

“Hey, mask up!” The barback shot at me.

Pointing down at my beer, I then returned (nicely I might add):

“Oh…I’m drinking.” I actually thought he didn’t see that I had a drink.

“Pull your mask up between sips. Failure to comply gets you kicked out.” he barked.

‘Failure to comply’. I pondered the meaning of all this. Oh, I knew the meaning…I think I was reminded once again how utterly lost we are as a society…and as humans.

As I prepared to get up and leave (to go outside to finish said beer…at least I can take my face diaper off…for now that is), I glanced through the server window to the back ‘prep’ area to see Mr. Sunshine barback and his co-horts enjoying a maskless moment (see photo below).

(Oh yes, don’t think ‘ol Kenster here isn’t going to leave without getting some photographic documentation of these wayward, maskless souls).

What’s so disappointing these days is three-fold:

If you feel (felt?) masks are genuinely helpful (I don’t) that’s fine. I actually get that. The fact that people actually think it’s necessary to ‘pull your diaper up between sips’ is troubling…that is, troubling for the future of mankind.

Secondly, a good portion of mankind has just become plain rude. And I think part of this is bred from utter frustration, and fear.

We should all be frustrated…and frankly, scared.

Finally, the staff (in my little fracas outlined here) are hypocrites.

The rules don’t apply to them. Not a good look if you’re trying to create your own version of Stalin-era Russia. At least make an effort to set the example. Or just put a gun to my head while you serve that beer to me and be honest:

“Do as I say…not as we doo…”

(‘Doo being the very operative word here)

What’s your take? Sound off…comment below…and subscribe to my Youtube channel (where I do a fair amount of musings to delight and enthrall…)

Just remember: We may not have to wear masks anymore, but what’s next?

[All Images by Kenneth Holland except where noted otherwise]