This week John and special guest star David Schneider both made thematically appropriate recommendation for the episode, while Pat stayed out in his lonely sci-fi world to recommend something that had nothing to do with Las Vegas or heist films.

John thinks that Rififi is the greatest heist film ever made. David agrees while Pat still needs to see it. So does everyone else out there who hasn’t watched it yet.

Pat gives high praise to Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh. It’s a story set in a future that feels familiar to our own. It’s the best sort of science fiction, the kind that uses future technology to examine relationships and issues that resonate in any time period.

And, David says that Grandissimo: The First Emperor of Las Vegas: How Jay Sarno Won a Casino Empire, Lost It, and Inspired Modern Las Vegas by David G. Schwartz (he used a slightly shorter title, but the power of cut and paste makes it easier to put the whole title in) is an excellent look at Jay Sarno, an unheralded hero in the creation of the modern day Las Vegas that is more than just a place to gamble.