Thursday, Las Vegas, Nevada

The worst part of traveling alone is definitely the circumstance of having to eat alone. For all the years I have been on the road it has become a habit to eat take out food in the hotel room rather than feel like a loser alone in a restaurant. So this evening in Las Vegas I stopped in to a local Italian restaurant to order dinner. While waiting at the bar all the giant televisions were showing the latest craze among disaffected, angry men Ultimate Fighting.

You know this spectacle - two macho idiots in a ring beating the crap out of each other. This sport is like a hybrid of boxing, wrestling and a variety of martial arts and street fighting. The two combatants are allowed to not just punch but kick and wrestle each other as well. I don’t think biting is allowed but I’m not really sure.

It just looks like two knuckleheads who got drunk at a pub and then went out back to brawl over an insult to one of their girlfriends. I may be wrong but watching the post fight interviews it doesn’t appear that these guys are teaching at a college or in charge of anyone’s retirement account. One guy I saw tonight had so much cartilage on his ears that there were no contours like on a normal ear. I don’t know what this means except he fit my description of an individual who stakes their human happiness on being successful in ultimate fighting.

Where have we come as a society that viewers are getting a vicarious thrill out of watching two morons street fight for money and acclaim? Where do they take their careers from here? I cannot imagine that these guys are left with the prospect of showing off their championship rings in their fifties while handing over burgers through a drive up window.

It seems that we are so utterly frustrated as a society that we are looking for any opportunity to expel our pent up frustration in whatever way we can - even if it means sitting in a pub drinking beer and watching something as idiotic as the cat fights called Ultimate Fighting.

Can you say brain damage?