Word: sharked
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...flow of raw human yearnings for wealth. Las Vegas is the ultimate embodiment of this process, stripped of genteel pretensions, and it is toward this mecca of the Horatio Alger dream that Thompson heads. He speeds dope-crazed along the desert in a rented convertible, The Great Red Shark, accompanied by his Samoan attorney. Ostensibly he is on assignment for an East Coast sporting magazine to cover the Mint 400, a renowned motorcycle race. But the story is thwarted when the plush and highly sophisticated atmosphere of the race is choked with desert dust, and press coverage becomes as futile...
...fact, nobody notices how twisted they are, for in Vegas, one can pursue his own dream, no matter how savage -- just as long as one doesn't "burn the locals." And the doped-up duo's antics reach outrageous limits. They terrorize the strip in the Great Red Shark; they successfully infiltrate a National District Attorneys' Drug Conference; burn two hotels by charging exorbitant amounts on phony credit cards, intimidate room service girls into loading their room with grapefruit and 600 bars of Neutrogena soap; trace down directions to the American Dream to a grassy plot of land where...
...like the rest, he somehow manages to retain a shred of self-respect. It alienates him from them, and causes repulsive hallucinations of lizards, moray eels, and huge reptiles standing in blood-soaked carpets sipping cocktails. The drive for success/money/power has created a world where an "eat the wounded" shark ethic prevails, but Thompson believes its apocalypse is imminent. He watches people burn themselves out in struggles for self-preservation, escaping "meat-hook reality" through dope, booze, and watching football -- "whatever short-circuits your brain and grounds it out for the longest possible time...
Normally, the Oakmont Country Club, a 6,921-yd. ogre of a course with slick greens, deep rough, and fairways as narrow as a bowling alley, lays low such high intentions. But Johnny played exceptionally well, putting like a pool shark and hitting his lofty drives as straight as the stretch of Pennsylvania Turnpike that bisects the course. Starting six strokes off the pace, Johnny overtook a dozen of the world's top golfers with one of the most spectacular come-from-nowhere charges in the annals of golf. Scoring an incredible nine birdies in the first 15 holes...
...room house on Grand Cay has been refurbished and enlarged. The President uses the master suite while there and often works during the early morning hours in the attached private study. Besides fishing, Nixon rides around the 125-acre island on a golf cart, and swims in the shark-filled waters-always, of course, under close watch by Secret Service agents...