Observations from a daytrip...

...to a town an hour-and-a-half north of me to watch a plaque dedication at an author-associated site there:

1) During the ceremony, a man standing next to me farted, but when he did that he didn't move or even acknowledge somehow that he had done that.

2) After the ceremony, a woman who had been there and me walked around the park some and we chit-chatted, and we bumped into each other at a bar downtown later on.

She was a local, and she thought the turnout was disappointing. "Everyone should have been there," she was like.

3) For some reason they have video gambling in that town, and like every bar and many restaurants have multiple video gambling terminals, often with a roped-off area and a sign there that says "NO ONE UNDER 25 ADMITTED" or some shit like that.

The video gambling does not seem to be leading to prosperity.