Good Night Mister Pink
Let’s face it; if these stories do nothing else, you have to admit I’m a bit off center.
The weekend Julie and I were in Vegas for the Radio Music Awards, and my chance at a million dollars, we had that first night all to ourselves.
The distances between casinos in Las Vegas are deceiving. They are really much further apart than it looks. We found our way onto the strip, from the Aladdin and headed for the lights of town. And after 30 to 40 minutes walking, we started getting tired. But we persevered.
We got to Boardwalk, New York New York, The Excalibur, and of course The Flamingo. We did the usual tourist thing watching the people and weirds and gazing in awe at the Casinos themselves. We had a ball.
Finally, about 1:30 in the morning, actually the next day, we decided we were hungry and stopped at a little dinner on the strip. We both wanted something more than a sandwich and this place appeared clean and the menu looked pretty good so we went on inside.
We received a warm welcome from the waitress who sat us at a window table next to a big corner booth. We ordered our meals and just started to relax when a large group of young people sat down in the corner booth. I say young; they were all in their mid to late 20’s and obviously students.
Julie and I were just sitting, talking quietly, and finishing our dinner when the students began a discussion on Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs”. There was a divide among the group of 5 men and 3 women. Three of the men and two of the women were of the opinion “Dogs” was the greatest heist movie ever filmed, and the others didn’t.
The discussion was spirited and really quite well thought out on both sides. The arguments were clear and the points brought up were absolutely relevant to the topic and conversation. I listened as it was not hard to hear as we were the only two groups in the place. But these folks knew that movie line by line. Even the ones that didn’t think it was great.
Julie and I finished and decided to take a cab back to the Aladdin so when I paid the waitress I asked if she could call us a cab to which she replied it was no problem as they had several cabs that would come right away.
The “Dogs” conversation hit one of those momentary pauses that occur just as Julie and I stood up. I turned to the group, stuck out my hand to one of the movies defenders and very softly said; “Good Might Mister Black” and we shook hands as he looked at me with a questioning look. I turned to one of the young ladies and said, in the same soft voice; “Good Night Miss White” and we too shook hands, only now she seemed to start to pick up on the joke and reference.
I then turned to the leader of the Anti’Dogs group, again put out my hand, and said in that quiet voice; “Good Night Mister Pink” and we shook hands and it was just about then everyone got the joke and the reference to the movie.
Miss White and Mister Black were laughing out loud and Mister Pink jumped right in with a line from the movie, “Hey, why am I Mister Pink?” So I responded with the movies next line, “Because you’re a faggot” and the entire table collapsed into unrestrained laughter. I shook everyone’s hand, introduced Julie and myself, apologized to Mister Pink for the “faggot” comment and they all said “no, no, no man. It’s part of the movie”. And everyone collapsed again with laughter.
As Julie and I walked out to the waiting cab, I heard the leader of the pro-dogs tell everyone else, “See I told you it’s the greatest movie ever made. They’ve even seen it in Hawaii”.
I resisted the urge to respond. Hell, one great set up a night is enough.
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