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Newsletter
Tales of the Lucky Nickel Saloon, Second Ave., Laramie, Wyoming, US of A
reviewed by
In these momentous, serious, dangerous times, sometimes you'd kill for a laugh. Well, manslaughter might be sufficient.
Thing is, when you really want to escape the headlines, talking heads, and unemployment lines that scream at you from your TV set, you're likely to do so with humor. This is where Ken Rand's Lucky Nickel Saloon comes in mighty handy. This here mini-collection chapbook's more entertaining than bobbing for apples in a vat of rabid squirrels. More laughs than a mime's mental state, and more chuckles than a crateful of Skittles raining onto your driveway. That is, it's funny stuff.
Five tales, all of which take place in the title's establishment, owned by Mick, the "deef" Irishman. Your host and narrator's the honorable Tom Dooley, and his pals include Banky (who fancies himself a gunfighter but ain't), and Casper (the one-eyed bad gambler), and Charlie (the drunk), and Jack Thatcher (who's always late enterin' the story). Oh, and a white-suited nuisance of a reporter named Sam Something, who stops by between trains on the way to and from St. Louie.
In "Queen O' the Dragons" the gang wonders how to tell Mick he's been had after buying an invisible dragon, but the joke's on them. In "The Problem With Mermaids," you've got a fish story within a fish story or two, or three, but a circus and a wedding take place in the Lucky Nickel, and the gang even gets to glimpse some female chest, albeit underwater in a barrel, so you know it's all serious business. In the cryptically-titled "A Spider Poor Cowboy Rapt And Wide Lemon," the snoopy Sam helps rid the bar of its first and only haunting, while in "The Grim Reaper Drops By" a visit from the dark-garbed dignitary both scares and attracts business, and shows the bar's reputation has certainly preceded it. "Charley's In the Bottle"—which may well be the most light weight, and that's saying a lot—gives us a magical gin (djinn?) bottle and shows off the good-natured reg'lars doin' their best for each other and even that snoop, Sam Something.
These are warm-hearted tales about guys you'd like to drink with, chewin' the fat and contemplating some improbable new adventure while duckin' a bar tab or drillin' the ceiling full of holes. Ken Rand proves the American tall-tale's still thrivin', even if it's been a while since old Sam Something penned a few hisownself.
Five humdingers for six bucks and a dandy cover—who can beat that?
Put blunt-like: these tales may stretch the boundaries of credulity, but honey, that's where the fun is...