I was delivering some legal documents to a firm on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles and had to park a few blocks away. Leaving the building, I walked past a parking meter and spotted this brilliantly-colored $1 chip from the Normandie Casino. I was impressed and picked it up. Began wondering if other cardrooms had such nice chips and whether I could get some. And before you know it, I was visiting the Bicycle, the Hustler, Hawaiian Gardens, Commerce . . . hooked for life!

Mr. Normandie sits beside my alarm clock and every morning when the buzzer sounds off, he does he does an imitation of Joe the Stooge: "Not soooo LOOWWWWWD!"

The moral of this story: "The best chips in life are free."