This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information on how to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This reading is by Gordon Mackenzie. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Book III Song of Myself XIV The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night. Yahonk, he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation. The perk may suppose it meaningless, but I, listening close, find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky. The sharp hoofed moose of the north, the cat on the house-sill, the chickadee, the prairie dog, the litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats, the brood of the turkey hen, and she with her half-spread wings, I see in them and myself the same old law. The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections. They scorn the best I can do to relate them. I am enamored of growing outdoors, of men that live among cattle, or taste of the ocean or woods, of the builders and stirrers of ships and the wielders of axes and mauls, and the drivers of horses. I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out. What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest is me. Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns, adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me, not asking the sky to come down to my good will, scattering it freely for ever. 15. The pure Contralto sings in the organ loft. The carpenter dresses his plank. The tongue of his foreplane whistles its wild ascending lisp. The married and unmarried children ride home to their thanksgiving dinner. The pilot seizes the kingpin. He heaves down with a strong arm. The mate stands braced in the whale-boat. Lance and harpoon are ready. The duck-shooter walks by silent and cautious stretches. The deacons are ordained with crossed hands at the altar. The spinning-girl retreats and advances to the hum of the big wheel. The farmer stops by the bars as he walks on a first-day loaf and looks at the oats and rye. The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum, a confirmed case. He will never sleep any more as he did in the cot in his mother's bedroom. The jour-printer with grey head and gaunt-jaws works at his case. He turns his quid of tobacco while his eyes blur with the manuscript. The malformed limbs are tied to the surgeon's table. What is removed drops horribly in a pail. The quadruined girl is sold at the auction stand. The drunkard nods by the bar-room stove. The machinist rolls up his sleeves. The policeman travels his beat. The gatekeeper marks who pass. The young fellow drives the express-wagon. I love him, though I do not know him. The half-breed straps on his light-boots to compete in the race. The western turkey-shooting draws old and young. Some lean on their rifles. Some sit on logs. Out from the crowd steps the marksman, takes his position, levels his peace. The groups of newly-come immigrants cover the wharf or levee. As the woolly pates hoe in the sugar-field, the overseer views them from his saddle. The bugle calls in the ball-room. The gentlemen run for their partners. The dancers bow to each other. The youth lies awake in the cedar-roofed garret and harks to the musical rain. The wolverine sets traps on the creek that helps fill the huron. The squaw wrapped in her yellow-hemmed cloth is offering moccasins and bead-bags for sale. The connoisseur peers along the exhibition gallery with half-shut eyes bent sideways. As the deck-hands make fast at the steam-boat, the plank is thrown for the shore-going passengers. The young sister holds out the skein while the elder sister winds it off in a ball and stops now and then for the knots. The one-year wife is recovering and happy, having a week ago born her first child. The clean-haired Yankee girl works with her sewing machine or in the factory or mill. The paving-man leans on his two-handed rammer. The reporter's lead flies swiftly over the notebook. The sign-painter is lettering with blue and gold. The canal-boy trots on the tow-path. The book-keeper counts at his desk. The shoemaker waxes his thread. The conductor beats time for the band and all the performers follow him. The child is baptized. The convert is making his first professions. The regatta is spread on the bay. The race has begun. How the white sails sparkle! The drover, watching his drove, sings out to them that would stray. The peddler sweats with his pack on his back. The purchaser higgling about the odd scent. The bride unrumples her white dress. The minute hand of the clock moves slowly. The opium-eater reclines with rigid head and just-opened lips. The prostitute dragles her shawl. Her bonnet bobs on her tipsy and pimpled neck. The crowd laugh at her black-art oaths. The men jeer and wink to each other. Miserable. I do not laugh at your oaths nor jeer you. The president, holding a cabinet council, is surrounded by the great secretaries. On the piazza walk three matrons stately and friendly with twined arms. The crew of the fish-smack pack repeated layers of halibut in the hold. The Missourian crosses the plains toting his wares and his cattle. As the fare-collector goes through the train, he gives notice by the jingling of loose change. The floor-men are laying the floor. The tinners are tinning the roof. The masons are calling for mortar. In single file each shouldering his hod pass onward the laborers. Seasons pursuing each other, the indescribable crowd is gathered. It is the fourth of seventh month. What salutes of cannon and small arms? Seasons pursuing each other, the plower plows, the mower mows, and the winter grain falls in the ground. Off on the lakes, the pike-fisher watches and waits by the hole in the frozen surface. The stumps stand thick round the clearing. The squatter strikes deep with his axe. Flat boatmen make fast towards dusk near the cottonwood or pecan trees. Coon-seekers go through the regions of the Red River or through those drained by the Tennessee or through those of the Arkansas. Torches shine in the dark that hangs on the Chattahooch or Alta-Maha. Patriarchs sit at supper with sons and grandsons and great-grandsons around them. In walls of Adobe, in canvas tents, rest hunters and trappers after their day's sport. The city sleeps and the country sleeps.  The old husband sleeps by his wife and the young husband sleeps by his wife. And these tend inward to me and I tend outward to them. And such as it is to be of these more or less I am and of these one and all I weave the song of myself. Sixteen. I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise, regardless of others, ever regardful of others, maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man, stuffed with the stuff that is coarse and stuffed with the stuff that is fine. One of the nation of many nations, the smallest, the same, and the largest, the same. A southerner, soon as a northerner, a planter nonchalant and hospitable down by the Okenee I live, a Yankee bound my own way ready for trade, my joints the limbrest joints on earth and the sternest joints on earth, a Kentuckian walking the veil of the elk horn in my deerskin leggings, a Louisianaan or Georgian, a boatman over lakes or bays or along coasts, a Hoosier, Badger, Buckeye, at home on Canadian snowshoes or up in the bush or with fishermen off Newfoundland, at home in the fleet of ice-boats sailing with the rest and tracking, at home on the hills of Vermont or in the woods of Maine or the Texan Ranch, comrade of Californians, comrade of free north-westerners loving their big proportions, comrade of raftsmen and coalmen, comrade of all who shake hands and welcome to drink and meet, a learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thoughtfulest, a novice beginning, yet experienced of myriads of seasons, of every hue and cased MI, of every rank and religion, a farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, quaker, prisoner, fancy man, rowdy, lawyer, physician, priest. I resist anything better than my own diversity. Breathe the air, but leave plenty after me, and I'm not stuck up and I'm in my place. The moth and the fish eggs are in their place. The bright suns I see and the dark suns I cannot see are in their place. The palpable is in its place and the impalpable is in its place. Seventeen. These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands. They are not original with me. If they are not yours as much as mine, they are nothing, or next to nothing. If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle, they are nothing. If they are not just as close as they are distant, they are nothing. This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is. This is the common air that bathes the globe. Eighteen. With music strong I come. With my cornets and my drums. I play not marches for accepted victors only. I play marches for conquered and slain persons. Have you heard that it was good to gain the day? I also say it is good to fall. Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won. I beat and pound for the dead. I blow through my embouchures, my loudest and gayest for them. Vivas to those who have failed. And to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea. And to those themselves who sank in the sea. And to all generals that lost engagements and all overcome heroes. And the numberless, unknown heroes equal to the greatest heroes known. Nineteen. This is the meal equally set. This the meat for natural hunger. It is for the wicked just same as the righteous. I make appointments with all. I will not have a single person slighted or left away. The kept woman, sponger, thief are hereby invited. The heavy-lipped slave is invited. The venerially is invited. There shall be no difference between them and the rest. This is the press of a bashful hand. This the float and odor of hair. This the touch of my lips to yours. This the murmur of yearning. This the far-off depth and height reflecting my own face. This the thoughtful merge of myself and the outlet again. Do you guess I have some intricate purpose? Well, I have. For the fourth month showers have. And the mica on the side of a rock has. Do you take it I would astonish? Does the daylight astonish? Does the early red start twittering through the woods? Do I astonish more than they? This hour I tell things in confidence. I might not tell everybody. But I will tell you. Twenty. Who goes there? Scattering, gross, mystical nude. How is it I extract strength from the beef I eat? What is a man anyhow? What am I? What are you? All I mark as my own you shall offset it with your own. Else it were time lost listening to me. I do not snivel that snivel the world over, that months are vacuums, and the ground but wallow and filth, whimpering and truckling fold with powders for invalids. Conformity goes to the fourth removed. I wear my hat as I please, indoors or out. Why should I pray? Why should I venerate and be ceremonious? Having pried through the strata, analyzed to a hair, counseled with doctors and calculated close, I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones. In all people I see myself. None more and not one a barley-corn less. And the good or bad I say of myself, I say of them. I know I am solid and sound. To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually flow. All are written to me. And I must get what the writing means. I know I am deathless. I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter's compass. I know I shall not pass like a child's carlacue cut with a burnt stick at night. I know I am August. I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood. I see that the elementary laws never apologize. I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by after all. I exist as I am. That is enough. If no other in the world be aware, I sit content. And if each and all be aware, I sit content. One world is aware and by far the largest to me. And that is myself. And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years, I can cheerfully take it now or with equal cheerfulness I can wait. My foothold is tenoned and mortist in granite. I laugh at what you call dissolution. And I know the amplitude of time. Twenty-one, I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the soul.  The first I graft and increase upon myself. The latter I translate into new tongue. I am the poet of the woman, the same as the man. And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man. And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men. I chant the chant of dilation or pride. We have had ducking and deprecating about enough. I show that size is only development. Have you outstripped the rest? Are you the president? It is a trifle. They will more than arrive there every one and still pass on. I am he that walks with the tender and growing night. I call to the earth and sea, half-held by the night. Press close, bare-bosomed night. Press close, magnetic, nourishing night. Night of south winds. Night of the large few stars. Still-nodding night. Mad-naked summer night. Smile, o voluptuous, cool-breathed earth. Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees. Earth of the departed sunset. Earth of the mountains misty-topped. Earth of the vitrious pore of the full moon just tinged with blue. Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river. Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake. Far-swooping elbowed earth. Rich, apple-blossomed earth. Smile for your lover comes. Prodigal, you have given me love. Therefore I to you give love. Oh, unspeakable, passionate love. You see, I resign myself to you also. I guess what you mean. I behold from the beach your crooked fingers. I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me. We must have a turn together. I undress, hurry me out of sight of the land. Cushion me soft, rock me in billowy drows. Dash me with amorous wet. I can repay you. Sea of stretched groundswells. Sea breathing broad and convulsive breaths. Sea of the brine of life and of unshoveled yet always ready graves. Howler and scooper of storms. Capricious and dainty sea. I am integral with you. I too am of one phase and of all phases. Partaker of influx and efflux I. Extoler of hate and conciliation. Extoler of amese and those that sleep in each other's arms. I am he a testing sympathy. Shall I make my list of things in the house and skip the house that supports them? I am not the poet of goodness only. I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also. What blurt is this about virtue and about vice? Evil propels me and reform of evil propels me. I stand indifferent. My gate is no fault finders or rejectors gate. I moisten the roots of all that has grown. Did you fear some scruffula out of the unflagging pregnancy? Did you guess the celestial laws are yet to be worked over? And rectified? I find one side a balance and the antipodal side a balance. Soft doctrine as steady help as stable doctrine. Thoughts and deeds of the present are rouse and early start. This minute that comes to me over the past decillions. There is no better than it and now. What behaved well in the past or behaves well today is not such wonder. The wonder is always and always how there can be a mean man or an infidel. 23. Endless unfolding of words of ages. And mine a word of the modern. The word en masse. A word of the faith that never balks. Here or henceforward it is all the same to me. I accept time absolutely. It alone is without flaw. It alone rounds and completes all. That mystic baffling wonder alone completes all. I accept reality and dare not question it. Materialism first and last imbuing. Hurrah for positive science. Long live exact demonstration. Fetch stone crop mixed with cedar and branches of lilac. This is the lexicographer. This is the chemist. This made a grammar of the old cartouches. These mariners put the ship through dangerous unknown seas. This is the geologist. This works with the scalper. And this is a mathematician. Gentlemen, to you the first honours always. Your facts are useful. And yet they are not my dwelling. I but enter by them to an area of my dwelling. Less the reminders of properties told my words. And more the reminders they of life untold. And of freedom and extrication. And make short account of neuters and geldings. And favour men and women fully equipped. And beat the gong of revolt. And stop with fugitives. And them that plot and conspire. 24. Walt Whitman. A cosmos of Manhattan the sun. Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding. No sentimentalist. No standard above men and women more apart from them. No more modest than immodest. Unscrew the locks from the doors. Unscrews the doors themselves from their jams. Whoever degrades another degrades me. And whatever is done or said returns at last to me. Through me the aphelitus surging and surging. Through me the current and index. I speak the password primeval. I give the sign of democracy. By God I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.  Voices of the interminable generations of prisoners and slaves. Voices of the diseased and despairing and of thieves and dwarves. Voices of cycles of preparation and accretion. And of the threads that connect the stars. And of wombs and of the father's stuff. And of the rites of them that others are down upon.  Through me forbidden voices. Voices of sexes and lusts. Voices veiled and I removed the veil. Voices indecent by me clarified and transfigured. I do not press my fingers across my mouth. I keep as delicate around the bowels as around the head and heart. Copulation is no more ranked to me than death is. I believe in the flesh and the appetites. Seeing, hearing, feeling are miracles. And each part and tag of me is a miracle. Divine am I. Inside and out and I make wholly whatever I touch or am touched from. The scent of these armpits. Aroma finer than prayer. This head more than churches, bibles and all the creeds. If I worship one thing more than another, it shall be the spread of my own body or any part of it. Translucent mold of me, it shall be you. Shaded ledges and rests, it shall be you. Firm masculine colter, it shall be you. Whatever goes to the tilth of me, it shall be you.   Breast that presses against other breasts, it shall be you. My brain, it shall be your occult convolutions. Root of washed sweet flag. Timorous pond snipe. Nest of guarded duplicate eggs, it shall be you. Mixed, tussled hay of head, beard brawn, it shall be you. Trickling sap of maple. Fiber of manly wheat, it shall be you. Sun so generous, it shall be you. Vapors lighting and shading my face, it shall be you. You sweaty brooks and dews, it shall be you. Winds whose soft tickling genitals rub against me, it shall be you. Broad muscular fields, branches of live oak. Loving lounger in my winding paths, it shall be you. Hands I have taken. Face I have kissed.  I dot on myself. There is that lot of me, and all so luscious. Each moment, and whatever happens, thrills me with joy. I cannot tell how my ankles bend, nor wence the cause of my faintest wish, nor the cause of the friendship I emit, nor the cause of the friendship I take again, that I walk up my stoop. I pause to consider, if it really be, a morning glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. To behold the daybreak. The little light fades the immense and diaphanous shadows. The air tastes good to my palate. Hefts of the moving world at innocent gambles, silently rising, freshly exuding, scooting obliquely, high and low. Something I cannot see puts upward, libidness prongs, seas of bright juice suffuse heaven. The earth by the sky stayed with the daily clothes of their junction. The heaved challenge from the east, that moment over my head, the mocking taunt. See then whether you shall be master. Twenty-five. Dazzling and tremendous how quick the sunrise would kill me. If I could not now and always send sunrise out of me, we also ascend. Dazzling and tremendous as the sun. We found our own home, my soul, in the calm and cool of the daybreak. My voice goes after what my eyes cannot reach. With the twirl of my tongue I encompass worlds and volumes of worlds. Speech is the twin of my vision. It is unequal to measure itself. It provokes me for ever. It says sarcastically, Walt, you contain enough. Why don't you let it out then? Come now. I will not be tantalized. You conceive too much of articulation. Do you not know, O speech, how the buds beneath you are folded, waiting in gloom, protected by frost, the dirt receding before my prophetical screams? I, underlying, causes to balance them at last. My knowledge, my live parts, it keeping tally with the meaning of all things. Happiness. Which, whoever hears me, let him or her set out in search of this day.  I refuse putting from me what I really am. Encompass worlds, but never try to encompass me. I crowd your sleekest and best by simply looking toward you. Writing and talk do not prove me. I carry the plenum of proof and everything else in my face. With the hush of my lips I wholly confound the skeptic. Twenty-six. Now I will do nothing. But listen to accrue what I hear into this song to let sounds contribute toward it. I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat, gossip of flames, clack of sticks cooking my meals. I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice. I hear all sounds, running together, combined, fused, or following. Sounds of the city, and sounds out of the city, sounds of the day and night, talkative young ones to those that like them, loud laugh of work people at their meals, the angry base of disjointed friendship, the faint tones of the sick, the judge with hands tight to the desk, his pallid lips pronouncing a death sentence, the heave-yo of stevedores unlading ships by the wharves, the refrain of the anchor-lifters, the ring of alarm bells, the cry of fire, the whir of swift streaking engines and hose carts with premonitory tinkles and colored lights, the steam whistle, the solid roll of the train of approaching cars, the slow march played at the head of the association marching two and two. They go to guard some corpse. The flag-tops are draped with black muslin. I hear the violin cello. Tis the young man's hearts complaint. I hear the keyed cornet. It glides quickly in through my ears. It shakes mad sweet pangs through my belly and breast. I hear the chorus. It is a grand opera. Ah, this indeed is music. This suits me. A tenor large and fresh as the creation fills me. The orbic flecks of his mouth is pouring and filling me full. I hear the trained soprano. What work with hers is this? The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies. It wrenches such ardors from me. I did not know I possessed them. It sails me. I dab with bare feet. They are licked by the indolent waves. I am cut by bitter and angry hail. I lose my breath, steeped amid honeyed morphine. My windpipe throttled in fakes of death. At length let up again to feel the puzzle of puzzles. And that we call being. End of section twenty-six. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information on how to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This reading by Gordon Mackenzie. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Book Three Song of Myself Twenty-seven To Be in Any Form What is that? Round and round we go, all of us, and ever come back thither. If nothing lay more developed, the Quohog and its callous shell were enough. Mine is no callous shell. I have instant conductors all over me. Whether I pass or stop, they seize every object and lead it harmlessly through me. I merely stir, press, feel with my fingers, and am happy. To touch my person to someone else's is about as much as I can stand. Twenty-eight Is this, then, a touch? Quivering me to a new identity? Flames in ether making a rush for my veins. Treacherous tip of me reaching and crowding to help them. My flesh and blood playing out lightning to strike what is hardly different from myself. On all sides prurient provokers stiffening my limbs, straining the udder of my heart with its withheld drip, behaving licentious toward me, taking no denial, depriving me of my best as for a purpose, unbuttoning my clothes, holding me by the bare waist, deluding my confusion with the calm of the sunlight and pasture fields, immodestly sliding the fellow-senses away. They bribed to swap off with touch and go, and graze at the edges of me. No consideration, no regard for my draining strength or my anger, fetching the rest of the herd around to enjoy them a while, then all uniting to stand on a headland and worry me. The sentries desert every other part of me. They have left me helpless to a red marauder. They all come to the headland to witness and assist against me. I am given up by traitors. I talk wildly I have lost my wits. I and nobody else am the greatest traitor. I went myself first to the headland. My own hands carried me there. You villain touch! What are you doing? My breath is tight in its throat. Unclench your floodgates. You are too much for me. 29 Blind, loving, wrestling touch. Sheathed, hooded, sharp-toothed touch. Did it make you ache so, leaving me? Parting tracked by arriving. Perpetual payment of perpetual loan. Rich, showering rain and recompense richer afterward. Sprouts take and accumulate. Stand by the curb prolific and vital. Landscapes projected masculine, full-sized and golden. 30 All truths wait in all things. They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it. They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon. The insignificant is as big to me as any. What is less or more than a touch? Logic and sermons never convince. The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul. Only what proves itself to every man and woman is so. Only what nobody denies is so. A minute and a drop of me settle my brain. I believe the soggy clods shall become lovers and lamps. And a compend of compends is the meat of a man or woman. And a summit and flower there is the feeling they have for each other. And they are to branch boundlessly out of that lesson until it becomes omnific. And until one in all shall delight us. And we them. 31 I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars. And the pismire is equally perfect. And a grain of sand and the egg of the wren. And the tree-toed is a chef-derve for the highest. And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven. And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery. And the cow, crunching with depressed head, surpasses any statue. And a mouse is a miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels. I find I incorporate niece, coal, long-threaded moss, fruits, grains, escalant roots, and am stuccoed with quadrupeds and birds all over, and have distanced what is behind me for good reasons, but call anything back again when I desire it. In vain the speeding or shyness. In vain the plutonic rocks send their old heat against my approach. In vain the mastodon retreats beneath its own powdered bones. In vain objects stand, leagues off, and assume manifold shapes. In vain the ocean settling in hollows and the great monsters lying low. In vain the buzzard houses herself with the sky. In vain the snake slides through the creepers and logs. In vain the elk takes to the inner passes of the woods. In vain the razor-billed awk sails far north to Labrador. I follow quickly. I ascend to the nest in the fissure of the cliff. Thirty-two. I think I could turn and live with animals. They are so placid and self-contained. I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins.  Not one is dissatisfied. Not one is demented with the mania of owning things. Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago. Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth. So they show their relations to me and I accept them. They bring me tokens of myself. They evince them plainly in their possession. I wonder where they get those tokens. Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them? Myself moving forward then and now and forever. Gathering and showing more always and with velocity. Infinite and omnigenous. And the like of these among them. Not too exclusive toward the reachers of my remembrancers. Picking out here one that I love. And now go with him on brotherly terms. A gigantic beauty of a stallion fresh and responsive to my caresses. Head high in the forehead. Wide between the ears. Limbs glossy and supple. Tail dusting the ground.  Ears finely cut. Flexibly moving. His nostrils dilate as my heels embrace him. His well-built limbs tremble with pleasure as we race around and return. I but use you a minute. Then I resign you, stallion. Why do I need your paces when I myself out-gallop them? Even as I stand or sit. Passing faster than you. Space and time. Now I see it is true what I guessed at. What I guessed when I loafed on the grass. What I guessed while I lay alone in my bed. And again as I walked the beach under the paling stars of the morning. My ties and ballasts leave me, my elbows rest in sea-gaps. I skirt sierras. My palms cover continents. I am afoot with my vision. By the city's quadrangular houses, in log huts, camping with lumbermen along the ruts of the turnpike, along the dry gulch and rivulet bed, weeding my onion patch, we're hosing rows of carrots and parsnips, crossing savannas, trailing in forests, prospecting gold-digging, girdling the trees of a new purchase, scorched ankle-deep by the hot sand, hauling my boat down the shallow river, where the panther walks to and throw on a limb overhead, where the buck turns furiously at the hunter, where the rattlesnake suns his flabby length on a rock, where the otter is feeding on fish, where the alligator in his tough pimples sleeps by the bayou, where the black bear is searching for roots or honey, where the beaver pats the mud with his paddle-shaped tail, over the growing sugar, over the yellow-flowered cotton plant, over the rice in its low, moist field, over the sharp-peaked farmhouse, with its scalloped scum and slender shoots from the gutters, over the western persimmon, over the long-leaved corn, over the delicate blue flower of flax, over the white and brown of buckwheat, a hummer and buzzer there with the rest, over the dusky green of the rye as it ripples and shades in the breeze, scaling mountains, pulling myself cautiously up, holding on by low, scragged limbs, walking the path worn in the grass and beat through the leaves of the brush, where the quail is whistling betwixt the woods in the wheat-lot, where the bat flies in the seventh-month eve, where the great gold-bug drops through the dark, where the brook puts out of the roots of the old tree and flows to the meadow, where cattle stand and shake away flies with the tremulous shuttering of their hides, where the cheesecloth hangs in the kitchen, where and-iron straddle the hearth-slab, where cobwebs fall in festoons from their afters, where trip-hammers crash, where the press is whirling its cylinders, wherever the human heart beats with terrible throes under its ribs, where the pear-shaped balloon is floating aloft, floating in it myself and looking composedly down, where the life-car is drawn on the slip-noose, where the heat hatches pale green eggs in the dented sand, where the she-whale swims with her calf and never forsakes it, where the steam-ship trails hind-ways its long pennant of smoke, where the fin of the shark cuts like a black chip out of the water, where the half-burned brig is riding on unknown currents, where shells grow to her slimy deck, where the death are corrupting below, where the dense-starred flag is born at the head of the regiments, approaching Manhattan, up by the long stretching island, under Niagara, the cataract falling like a veil over my countenance, upon a doorstep, upon the horse-block of hard wood outside, upon the race-course or enjoying picnics or jigs or a good game of baseball, at he-festivals with blagger jibes, ironical license, bull dances, drinking laughter, at the cider-mill tasting the sweets of the brown mash, sucking the juice through a straw, at apple-peelings wanting kisses for all the red fruit I find, at musters, beach-parties, friendly bees, huskings, house-raisings, where the mockingbird sounds his delicious gurgles, cackles, streams, weeps, where the hay-rick stands in the barnyard, where the dry stalks are scattered, where the brood-cow waits in the hovel, where the bull advances to do his masculine work, where the stud to the mare, where the cock is treading the hen, where the heifers browse, where geese nip their food with short jerks, where sundown shadows lengthen over the limitless and lonesome prairie, where herds of buffalo make a crawling spread of the square miles far and near, where the hummingbird shimmers, where the neck of the long-lived swan is curving and winding, where the laughing gull scoots by the shore, where she laughs her near-human laugh, where beehives range on a grey bench in the garden half-hid by the high weeds, where band-necked partridges roost in a ring on the ground with their heads out, where burial-coaches enter the arched gates of a cemetery, where winter wolves bark amid wastes of snow and icicle trees, where the yellow-crowned heron comes to the edge of the marsh at night and feeds upon small crabs, where the splash of swimmers and divers cools the warm noon, where the Katie did works her chromatic reed on the walnut tree over the well, through patches of citrons and cucumbers with silver-wired leaves, through the salt-lick or orange-glade or under conical furs, through the gymnasium, through the curtain saloon, through the office or public hall, pleased with the native and pleased with the foreign, pleased with the new and old, pleased with the homely woman, as well as the handsome, pleased with the quakerous, as she puts off her bonnet and talks melodiously, pleased with the tune of the choir of the white-washed church, pleased with the earnest words of the sweating Methodist preacher, impressed seriously at the camp meeting, looking in at the shop windows of Broadway the whole forenoon, flattening the flesh of my nose on the thick-plate glass, wandering the same afternoon with my face turned up to the clouds or down a lane or along the beach, my right and left arms on the sides of two friends, and I in the middle, coming home with a silent and dark-cheeked bush-boy. Behind me he rides at the drape of the day, far from the settlements, studying the print of animals' feet or the moccasin print, by the cot in the hospital, reaching lemonade to a feverish patient. Nigh the coffined corpse, when all is still, examining with a candle, voyaging to every port, to dicker and adventure, hurrying with the modern crowd as eager and fickle as any, hot toward one I hate, ready in my madness to knife him, solitary at midnight, in my backyard, my thoughts gone from me a long while, walking the old hills of Judea, with the beautiful, gentle God by my side, speeding through space, speeding through heaven and the stars, speeding amid the seven satellites and the broad ring and the diameter of eighty thousand miles, speeding with tailed meteors, throwing fireballs like the rest, carrying the crescent child that carries its own mother in its belly, storming, enjoying, planning, loving, cautioning, backing and filling, peering and disappearing, I tread day and night, such roads. I visit the orchards of spheres and look at the product and look at quintillions ripened and look at quintillions green. I fly those flights of a fluid and swallowing soul, my course runs below the soundings of plummets. I help myself to material and immaterial. No guard can shut me off, no law prevent me. I anchor my ship for a little while only. My messengers continually cruise away or bring their returns to me. I go hunting polar furs in the seal, leaping chasms with a pike-pointed staff, clinging to topples of brittle and blue. I ascend to the four-truck. I take my place late at night in the crow's nest. We sail the Arctic sea. It is plenty light enough. Through the clear atmosphere I stretch around on the wonderful beauty. The enormous masses of ice pass me and I pass them. The scenery is plain in all directions. The white-topped mountains show in the distance. I fling out my fancies toward them. We are approaching some great battlefield in which we are soon to be engaged. We pass the colossal outposts of the encampment. We pass with still feet and caution. Or we are entering by the suburbs some vast and ruined city, the blocks and fallen architecture more than all the living cities of the globe. I am a free companion. I bevwack by invading watch-fires. I turn the bridegroom out of bed and stay with the bride myself. I tighten her all night to my thighs and lips. My voice is the wife's voice, the screech by the rail of the stairs. They fetch my man's body up dripping and drowned. I understand the large hearts of heroes, the courage of present times and all times, how the skipper saw the crowded and rudderless wreck of the steamship and death chasing it up and down the storm, how he knuckled tight and gave not back an inch as faithful of days and faithful of nights and chalked in large letters on a board. Be of good cheer, we will not desert you. How he followed with them and tacked with them three days and would not give it up. How he saved the drifting company at last. How the lank, loose-gowned women looked and boated from the side of their prepared graves. How the silent, old-faced infants and the lifted sick and the sharp-lipped, unshaven men. All this I swallow. It tastes good. I like it well. It becomes mine. I am the man. I suffered. I was there, the disdain and calmness of martyrs. The mother of old, condemned for a witch, burnt like dry wood, her children gazing on. The hounded slave that flags in the race leans by the fence blowing covered with sweat. The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck. The murderous buckshot. And the bullets. All these I feel. Or am. I am the hounded slave. I wince at the bite of the dogs. Hell and despair are upon me. Crack and again crack the marksmen. I clutch the rails of the fence. My gore dribs, thinned with the ooze of my skin. I fall on the weeds and stones. The riders spur their unwilling horses. Hall close. Taunt my dizzy ears.  Agonies are one of my changes of garments. I do not ask the wounded person how he feels. I myself become the wounded person. My hurts turn livid upon me. I lean on a cane and observe. I am the mashed fireman with breast-bone broken. Tumbling walls buried me in their debris. Heat and smoke I inspired. I heard the yelling shouts of my comrades. I heard the distant click of their picks and shovels. They have cleared the beams away. They tenderly lift me forth. I lie in the night air in my red shirt. The pervading hush is for my sake. Painless after all, I lie exhausted, but not so unhappy. White and beautiful are the faces around me. The heads are bared of their fire-caps. The kneeling crowd fades with the light of the torches. Distant and dead resuscitate. They show as the dial or move as the hands of me. I am the clock myself. I am an old artillerist. I tell of my forts bombardment. I am there again. Again the long roll of the drummers. Again the attacking cannon mortars. Again to my listening ears the cannon responsive. I take part. I see and hear the whole. The cries, curses, roar. The plaudits for well-aimed shots. The ambulanza slowly passing, trailing its red drip. Workmen searching after damages, making indispensable repairs. The fall of grenades through the rent-roof. The fan-shaped explosion. The whiz of limbs, heads, stone, wood, iron, high in the air. Again gurgles the mouth of my dying general. He furiously waves with his hand. He gasps through the clot. Mind not me. Mind the entrenchments. 44. Now I tell what I knew in Texas in my early youth. I tell not the fall of Alamo. Not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo.  Tis the tale of the murder in cold blood of four hundred and twelve young men, retreating they had formed in a hollow square with their baggage for breast-works. Nine hundred lives out of the surrounding enemies. Nine times their number was the price they took in advance. Their colonel was wounded and their ammunition gone. They treated for an honorable capitulation, received writing and seal, gave up their arms, and marched back prisoners of war. They were the glory of the race of rangers. Matchless with horse, rifle, song, supper, courtship. Large, turbulent, generous, handsome, proud, and affectionate. Bearded, sun-burnt, dressed in the free costume of hunters. Not a single one over thirty years of age. The second first day morning they were brought out in squads and massacred. It was beautiful early summer. The work commenced about five o'clock, and was over by eight. None obeyed the command to kneel. Some made a mad and helpless rush. Some stood stark and straight. A few fell at once, shot in the temple or heart. The living and dead lay together. The maimed and mangled dug in the dirt. The newcomers saw them there.  These were dispatched with bayonets, or battered with the blunts of muskets. A youth not seventeen years old seized his assassin till two more came to release him. The three were all torn and covered with the boy's blood. At eleven o'clock began the burning of the bodies. That is the tale of the murder of the four hundred and twelve young men. Thirty-five. Would you hear of an old time sea-fight? Would you learn who won by the light of the moon and stars? Listen to the yarn, as my grandmother's father the sailor told it to me. Our foe was no skulk in his ships, I tell you, said he. His was the surly English pluck, and there is no tougher or truer, and never was, and never will be. Along the lower eve he came horribly raking us. We closed with him. The yards entangled, the cannon touched. My captain lashed fast with his own hands. We had received some eighteen-pound shots under the water.  Fighting at sundown, fighting at dark. Ten o'clock at night. The full moon well up. Our leaks on the gain, and five feet of water reported. The master-at-arms loosing the prisoners confined in the aft hold to give them a chance for themselves. The transit to and from the magazine is now stopped by the sentinels. They see so many strange faces they do not know whom to trust. Our frigate takes fire. The other asks if we demand quarter, if our colors are struck and the fighting done.  We have not struck, he composedly cries. We have just begun our part of the fighting. Only three guns are in use. One is directed by the captain himself against the enemy's main mast. Two well served with grape and canister, silence his musketry, and clear his decks. The tops alone second the fire of this little battery, especially the main top. They hold out bravely during the whole of the action. Not a moment's cease. The leaks gain fast on the pumps. The fire eats toward the powder magazine. One of the pumps has been shot away. It is generally thought we are sinking. Serene stands the little captain. He is not hurried. His voice is neither high nor low. His eyes give more light to us than our battle lanterns. Toward twelve, there in the beams of the moon. They surrender to us. Thirty-six, stretched and still lies the midnight. Two great hulls motionless on the breast of the darkness. Our vessel riddled and slowly sinking. Preparations to pass to the one we have conquered. The captain on the quarter-deck coldly giving his orders, through a countenance white as a sheet. Nearby the corpse of the child that served in the cabin.  The flames spite of all that can be done, flickering aloft and below. The husky voices of the two or three officers yet fit for duty. Formless stacks of bodies and bodies by themselves. Dabs of flesh upon the masts and spars. Cut of cordage. Dangle of rigging. Slight shock of the sooth of waves. Black and impassive guns. Litter of powder parcels. Strong scent. A few large stars overhead. Silent and mournful shining. Delicate sniffs of sea breeze. Smells of seji grass and fields by the shore. Death messages given in charge to survivors. The hiss of the surgeon's knife. The gnawing teeth of his saw. Wheeze, cluck. Swash of falling blood. Short wild scream. And long, dull tapering groan. These sew. These irretrievable. Thirty-seven. You laggards there on guard. Look to your arms. In at the conquered doors they crowd. I am possessed. Embod all presences outlawed or suffering. Myself in prison shaped like another man. And feel the dull, unintermitted pain. For me the keepers of convicts shoulder their carbines and keep watch. It is I let out in the morning. And barred at night. Not a mutineer walks handcuffed to jail. But I am handcuffed to him and walk by his side. I am less the jolly one there, and more the silent one, with sweat on my twitching lips. Not a youngster is taken for larceny, but I go up too, and am tried and sentenced. Not a caller a patient lies at the last gasp, but I also lie at the last gasp. My face is ash-colored, my sinews gnarled. Away from me people retreat. Askers embody themselves in me, and I am embodied in them. I project my hat. Sit shame-faced, and beg. Thirty-eight. Enough! Enough! Enough! Somehow I have been stunned. Stand back. Give me a little time beyond my cuffed head. Slumbers, dreams, gaping. I discover myself on the verge of a usual mistake. That I could forget the mockers and insults. That I could forget the trickling tears and the blows of the bludgeons and hammers.  I remember now. I resume the overstayed fraction. The grave of rock multiplies what has been confided to it, or to any graves. Corpses rise. Gashes heal. Fastenings roll from me. I troop forth replenished, with supreme power. One of an average unending procession. In land and sea coast we go, and pass all boundary lines. Our swift ordinances on their way over the whole earth. The blossoms we wear in our hats. The growth of thousands of years. Eleves, I salute you. Come forward. Continue your annotations. Continue your questionings. 39. The friendly and flowing savage. Who is he? Is he waiting for civilization? Or past it, and mastering it? Is he some south-westerner raised outdoors? Is he Canadian? Is he from the Mississippi country, Iowa, Oregon, California, the mountains, prairie life, bush life, or sailor from the sea? Wherever he goes, men and women accept and desire him. They desire he should like them, touch them, speak to them, stay with them. If you're lawless as snowflakes, words, simple as grass, uncombed head, laughter, and naivete, slow stepping feet, common features, common modes and emanations. They descend in new forms from the tips of his fingers. They are wafted with the odor of his body or breath. They fly out of the glance of his eyes. 40. Flaunt of the sunshine, I need not your bask. Lie over. You light surfaces only. I force surfaces and depths also. Earth, you seem to look for something at my hands. Say, old topknot, what do you want? Man or woman? I might tell how I like you, but cannot, and might tell what it is in me and what it is in you, but cannot, and might tell that pining I have, that pulse of my nights and days. Behold, I do not give lectures or a little charity. When I give, I give myself. You there, impotent, loose in the knees. Open your scarfed chops till I blow grit within you. Spread your palms and lift the flaps of your pockets. I am not to be denied. I compel. I have stores plenty and to spare. And anything I have, I bestow. I do not ask who you are. That is not important to me. You can do nothing and be nothing, but what I will enfold you. To cotton-field drudge or cleaner of privies I lean. On his right cheek I put the family kiss. And in my soul I swear I never will deny him. On women fit for conception. I start bigger and nimbler babes. This day I am jetting the stuff of far more arrogant republics. To anyone dying, thither I speed and twist the knob of the door, turn the bed closed toward the foot of the bed, let the physician and priest go home. I seize the descending man and raise him with resistless will. O despairer, here is my neck. By God, you shall not go down. Hang your whole weight upon me. I dilate you with tremendous breath.  Every room of the house do I fill with an armed force. Lovers of me, bafflers of graves. Sleep. I and they keep guard all night. Not doubt, not decease, shall dare to lay finger upon you. I have embraced you, and henceforth possess you to myself. And when you rise in the morning you will find what I tell you is so. End of Forty.


Lord willst thou fill my soul with heath, And sorrow there might see, Let songs of praise and of glory fill my ear, And may thy holy spirit linger near. Lord willst thou fill my heart with love, And may see my realm, And my soul, I may know what thou wouldst have me be. My soul, I think so bold, I mention that I may soon return to


All right. Dave, whenever you say go. We're good to go. Thanks. Good morning, everyone. This is a public meeting of the Massachusetts gaming commission. We're holding this meeting virtually so I will do, I will call. Good morning, commissioner. Good morning. I'm here. Good morning, commissioner Hill. Good morning. I'm here. Good morning, commissioner Skinner. Good morning. Good morning, commissioner Mayer. Good morning. All right, we'll get started. Today is a public meeting number 504 and it's really depth. Designed to hear from our sports retreat operators. So I'm going to turn right to. Director Bamb and manager motion to get started and to our guests. Thank you so much. Okay, I'll turn it over to crystal. I'm going to quickly turn it over to Curtis. Are you guys all set Curtis? I see you. Yeah. Looks like your team is here. They're going to kick off with today's series of quarterly for quarter for reports. Good morning, commissioners. Can everyone see the presentation? We can. Thank you. Okay. Good morning again. And thank you for the opportunity to present RQ for report today. Thank you for joining me. Caesar's team. Yeah. Excuse me there. The rapper senior vice president of corporate social responsibility. Lisa Rankin, our VP of compliance and licensing. Under the weather today. I won't be joining Dave Schult. Our VP of procurement. Caroline lay you again. Our responsible gaming program director was also under the weather today and won't be joining. We'll be joining the director of diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as myself. So to start, we'll look at our revenue for Q4. And as shown on this slide here, we did pretty well in the quarter. However, November here. Was a favorable month for customers, especially on. Same game parlays. There was believe a. The Cowboys game in November, which had a record setting. Payout. Number of touchdown scored in that game was just a lot there. So that accounts for that number. So. So once again, leave it up to the Cowboys to just ruin everything for everyone. Are there any questions? I'm sure I'm going to be prohibited by the state of Texas after this presentation. It's not like it's public or anything. Fair enough. Any questions on this side? Slide. I'm sorry. We actually know that we all really appreciated that line. So thank you. No, no problem. Okay. If there's nothing else, I'll turn it over to Greg to discuss work force. Diversity. I'm very chambered. So I'd like to. Provide updates. With our workforce diversity. I'd like to re-emphasize. Celebrating and supporting our individual. Members by championing. Equitable policies that fostered inclusion. So our policies and efforts are designed to encourage the broadest diverse representation. So we've set goals. Gender. And racial parity. And I know we presented this. But I wanted to highlight what those goals are. For. And that is for women. 50% of leadership roles. By women within both from mid-level and senior level leadership positions. And then on the racial ethnic. Times. 50% of leadership roles. By people of color. And then we also committed to increasing the representation of people of color. And senior leadership. By 50%. So our commitment to these goals. Remains solid. As we grow the organization going forward. We'll ensure we present. And remember development processes. Our lines. With our stated goals. And so we plan to achieve our goal. Through a range of actions that. Provide. And of course in our culture. And across all communication and training channels. And then ensuring that we have access. To your development programs. And ensuring that our hiring types. I think I'm going to take three hours. And. So. The next slide though. So this slide is a breakdown of our support for employee population. And. We want to provide. The diversity. Of its own. That supports. Our message. So this is a representation. Of. 1555. Can remember. Of a whole. And as you'll see. Provide. And write down. With. Well. As well as. For different categories. For representation. So. A couple that I'd like to point out there. So. On the minority side. You'll see. We have. 40% representation. I was going to present. Executive level role. And. 39% manager. Super. Right. You'll see. We have 40% representation. I was going to present. Executive level role. And. 39% manager. Super. Right. Additionally. The next column is. When. Represent. 10% of those. And then. Another 20%. And manager. Supervisor. And. We also put in there are veterans. So. We have a number of. As veterans. However. Remember. Require to this. For this. So this is just what. And then. Where's our representation from Massachusetts. And we will see that we have. Six. So, before I take this file over to Gary, of course, the quality of emergency and question models. Commissioner, is there any questions for Greg? Thank you. And I'll be back shortly when it's back. A spotlight on your charitable giving, but for now I'll send it over to Dave first. Thank you, commissioners. First, I'd like to apologize in the day of technology. Of course, the video does not work consistently and today is one of those days. I'm not sure if it has to do with the outage that's going on or just our zoom. This slide basically just reconfirms what we had presented last quarter that we were developing a diversity 101 document and a diversity playbook to be used internally to enhance our visibility to the to throughout our internal stakeholders and teams largely within strategic sourcing and procurement. I'm happy to tell you that those documents have been completed and have been approved. And I will be able to share those through Curtis later after this call, and he can send them out to the commission for for your review. And please keep in mind that these are living breathing documents that of course as our business changes. So will the playbook, which is a quick reference guide to us folks in sourcing of what regulations and diversity goals we have within jurisdictions. Next slide please Curtis. And also happy to say that in the Q for for 23 you'll see that our diversity spin took another bump up from the third quarter. That is largely due to some greater visibility in non regulated markets and providing those strategic sourcing leaders with the opportunity to utilize diverse suppliers throughout the country. We are focused on 2024 to improve upon this number. And so far we're off to a good start in the first quarter of 2024. As I stated, the documents the 101 document and the playbook have been completed and approved. And I will share those with the commission after this presentation. Curtis. Okay. Thank you Dave. But before we proceed any questions for Dave on vendor diversity. Okay, if not, thank you. Okay. Next slide we have our statistics as it relates to underage access on our platform. Our determination for this is was we did a system search for underage accounts as well as we flag KYC's which required additional review. So as you can see on this slide here and known was identified for the quarter. But we will certainly continue to use all of our resources that we have and analytics to identify anyone underage using our platform, understanding that it's an important issue, both for us operators and for the commission. So with that, any questions on this slide. Yeah, go right ahead. Part of this is Commissioner Hill. I see the chart but what I don't see and I just want to remember total underage users reported to us so I guess my question was going to be and maybe this answers it in that particular column. What investigations did you do looking into this issue over the last quarter. Was it really zero. Yes, to my understanding there we didn't have any that warranted it additional review. Nobody reached out and said we think this is happening. My son did this something. Nope, not to my knowledge now. Okay. You will. Okay, next slide for play management reporting. Since this really is Caesar's. We just started reporting on this item in q for we thought a month over month comparison was a good review since you know we don't have much history to look at. So on this slide, some fairly balanced patron numbers that use the wager and deposit limitations. We have an increase as you can see on RG related clicks. Cool offs how to jump in November, significant jump in November. Again, since we just started this, we need a little more history to work with to draw better insight on what's happening. But we believe that in November with NBA NFL HL those seasons all active. They were just more wagering options for patrons to choose a cool off from any questions on this slide. Okay, if not moving on to responsible gaming. We noted 77 vse enrollees and those restricted in our system at the end of the quarter. We participated in two problem gambling activities in q for us shown in this slide. But again efforts toward the end of the year tend to wind down, but in 2024 with a problem gambling awareness month in March and other efforts. Caesar's just looks forward to adding more and responsible gaming comes you to any questions on this slide. Moving with lottery for lottery we had talks with the lottery commission on some promotional ideas and we're making great progress there. The next steps at this point we're working on a marketing strategy internally and to implement something within the next few months so the update. We look forward to providing the commission a more detailed update on our progress comes you to any questions on lottery. Curtis, do you mind going back to the screen right beforehand and you, you may have explained it but I may not have heard. Yes, the enrollees seven were added and then as 1231 they were 77. That's essentially the same number the scs that come from the state from you guys. We're just met that second bullets just confirming within our GT. system. What we recognize as also restricted from Massachusetts. Okay, thanks so the number is 77. Yes, the number 77. Correct. Thank you, which is consistent seems like that's a consistent number we're seeing. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Nothing a lottery. I'll pass it back over to Greg for community outreach. Thank you. So before I get to this slide here, I do want to mention last year. We made your last year we have mentioned to you that we support the military. Massachusetts military support foundation. We also have reconfirmed that support with them for 2024. I think we're excited about that and working with the on there too. But then I'd also like to point out the terrible contribution that is on this slide here. So, last year we've lost the season makes change program which offers guests the option to contribute to the terrible organization by donating their change when they are redeeming their slides against having an RT ticket for your show. So, participating properties offer up to three charity options at the RT machine one of those charities is a verified wide charity selected by the CSR King and then the other two are selected by that local property. And so, in the first kind of wide charity selected we chose the wheel on wheels broke of America program through June of 2023. And at that point we have received $1 million or they have received $1 million between donations. And in total since the start of the mission there's been more than $2 million raised to support social causes and deliver on the change across the country so for a first time once we're very, very happy to see this. Thank you, Greg. So with that, that concludes a serious presentation. But as always, there are any additional questions or inquiries regarding our presentation here feel free to reach out to the folks on this slide here. Thank you, Commission for your time. Thanks, Christina I'm just taking the. Sorry. I'll go down and we'll just do a quick check in. Thanks so much commissioners. Any questions for Curtis and Caesars. I'm just going to check I mean, Commissioner Ryan. You also know, I'm also thank you. Okay, excellent. Thank you. Thanks Curtis. Nice to see you. You as well. Thank you. Thanks for your report. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Next on the agenda, we have better.  I'm going to pull up the report one second. So Robert you're not feeling well. No ma'am and good morning. I'm really sorry. We'll try to make this as pain free as possible. And Commissioner Brian is on off on visual that she's listening away. Thanks, Crystal. Okay. Thank you for your assistance crystal. Again, it's my name is Robert Warren. I'm the compliance leader better. It's my pleasure to be able to present to you guys. This is our final quarterly report. All right. These are the revenue numbers. If you don't have any questions, we'll go to the next slide. Workforce diversity. In Q4, we made efforts to increase our recruiting pipeline with a diverse candidate pool which included women minorities and veterans. This resulted in six additional females joining the organization on our engineering finance and operations team. Regardless of us exiting the market we're going to continue to engage in various communities to increase our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Next slide. I've been to a supplier and vendor overview. 84% of our partners identify as small businesses. Next, with 17.32% identifying as women owned businesses. You can go to the next slide. I'm going to give you an overview of the breakdown of identification when it comes to Native American Hispanic Asian Pacific American African American and Alaska Native or Indian tribe. The orange and I want to make sure that I speak clearly this time because I believe last time I kind of gave up some confusing information the orange represents the Massachusetts operations spent. We would spend on our Massachusetts operations, which is not specifically to Massachusetts based businesses but it's towards the overall operations in Massachusetts. All right. That shows that it that you're spent as a total was just short of 10% Robert is that there. Yes, ma'am. So, Massachusetts will miss them. Yes, ma'am. All right. Thank you. You know, as I think about the impact of the sports wagering market. I mentioned it. I think it's on Tuesday. Yeah. It was Wednesday. The I'll miss the product better. Right. The diversity abroad. And here, we've got a little bit commissioners a loss of about 10% of their overall. Operational spent. Is that your overall operational spend or your discretion. Okay. Thank you. That's something. All right, for compliance. There were no cases of minor slash underage access to our platform during the reporting period. However, we did have a case of suspected account take over that we reported to the MGC. Specifically in regards to a complaint that came into the MGC that we were investigating. And while investigating this complaint, we realized that there were some KYC changes that that warranted some further investigation and upon investigating, you know, the individual who made the complaint decided not to respond to anything else anymore, which is just a it's a telltale sign of some type of nefarious activity. So we went ahead and created the report and sent it off to the MGC. But we, outside of that, we didn't have any cases of minor slash account takeover related to Massachusetts operations. Any questions for Robert on this. Okay, thank you. All right, responsible game. And as you can see, I think to sum this up in the best way possible. Our default deposit limit doesn't seem to create any type of barrier for for people who want to play on the platform. They play regardless of the deposit limit being in place. And you can see this by 39, you know, overall 40% of our user base being engaged in a deposit limit and still actively engaged in the product. Yep, and this is just some data about the timeouts. But, you know, the strong the stronghold here on responsible game is the default deposit limit. And Madam chair just echo some of what you've said in terms of betters departure. I, I was really intrigued by that limit and it's an interesting stat that you're putting up be interesting to follow you guys and other jurisdictions, you know, if that holds up that's a really, really good RG piece of information. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. I don't know if anybody else does similar reporting, Robert, but it's the stats go this way it's, it's very good information. Thank you, ma'am. Um, when we say we had zero VSE and rollies this quarter, better. Specifically, we don't count the the enrollees that enroll in other places and then, you know, by regulation we have to exclude them. We only accounting in this section, individuals who have reached out to us and said that they want to enroll into the VSE program. So this is why you see the number zero here, but of course, for the regulation everyone that enrolls in the program is excluded on our on our platform as well. And that's, that's the end of our presentation. Yeah, if you have any questions just let me know. If you have any questions for Robert and then we'll let him go get a big cup of tea. Thank you. Sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but you're calling me I moved too quickly. I just want to say thank you and thank you for joining and walking us through this. And, you know, thank you for being part of the Commonwealth and and being so professional and everything that you've done. Thank you, sir. Thank you. I would echo what commissioner manor said, I guess that there were a number of RG tools that better brought in that nobody else did. And so to your point maybe nobody else does the reporting but I'm, I'm still going to be interested in following how that works and other jurisdictions because I do think that it is. It's a good way. So I wish them well in that regard and their other jurisdictions. Thank you, ma'am. I'll set, which is getting Christian Hill. Feel better and thank you for just going to feel better and again I think we'll just echo the remarks of my colleagues. We were happy to have better apply. We're happy to have you do business. And we thank you for your professionalism and for your innovations. From the start, I spot solid as innovative. And we do wish you well in the other markets and as I think it was noted on to on Wednesday morning, perhaps she'll be back. I know you'll thank you. Massachusetts market. So thank you. Absolutely. It's been our pleasure and thank you and good luck to you all in the Commonwealth. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay, feel better. Yeah crystal we've got a whole lot of sickness. Just like their virtual germs. Virtual germs but I was feeling that his pain. All right, next. All right, I see Mike and do you have the rest of your team? Are you set Mike? I know we're rolling right along today. Are you are you feeling well? I feel great. Say when you probably getting very little sleep with the baby. He is a whole four months old. Yeah, so that's still a baby. He's always concerned we're going to hear the children but I said they love hearing the children. Yeah, we do love hearing children and and any any pets. We have never had a fish or a reptile join us. That'd be fun. I would not approve of a reptile. I can help you with that one.  It's very large actually. All right, so we should be set in one second. We see in the screen. Yeah. Great. Thanks, Crystal again for for driving our presentation. Good morning, Madam Chair, commissioners, O'Brien, Hill, Skinner and Maynard and MGC staff. My name is Mike Levine, Senior Regulatory Council here at Fanatic Spending and Gaming. Before you again to present our Q4 2023 results in the Commonwealth. With me today are Steph Althouse, our director of HR and Anthony D'Angelo, our responsible gaming senior manager. Here you'll see here are our Q4 results in Massachusetts. Our sports wagering revenue was about 2.9 million. And the sports wagering taxes remitted to the Commonwealth was around $571,000. These numbers reflect those are previously submitted to the MGC and detailed in our revenue reports on the MGC website. Now I'm going to pass it off to Steph and she'll talk about some of our workforce diversity initiatives. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. Can we go back to the screen just up and I just want to take a little look at it and just give me about 30 seconds if you don't mind. I have no question. I just wanted to look at it a little further. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Great. All set. I'll jump in. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for having us this morning. Let's get into the metrics first for Q4. In that middle layer there we saw, or the bottom layer we saw a steady level of metrics quarter over quarter. We did see a little bit of a decrease in the exact level and that was mainly due to just shifting around the senior leadership capacity but we do intend to keep focus on our representation at that level. Overall we did see an increase in numbers in all four categories for the manager and supervisor level. So the biggest jump was in the women category and we went from 20 to 32% quarter over quarter. Next slide, please. Awesome. Thank you. Fnaticus Global Impact Pillars are also our team of culture and talent. We also have an idea program which is inclusion, diversity, equity and advocacy. So the philosophy behind idea is that we strive to reflect all communities where everyone feels empowered to bring their true authentic selves to work each day. We understand that diversity isn't just about race or gender and it's also about the things you can see and you cannot see such as religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, veteran status, family status, etc. You'll see there we have our fans or Fnaticus Alliance Network. So I added a picture this time. I'm a little more visual. So added some color to the slide. But essentially we have Family First, Pride, Global Black Alliance, Veterans, Multicultural and WIN which is Women's Initiative Network. Fnaticus has a multitude of benefits that support employees in many facets of their life. Just a few to call out around travel benefit for reproductive care. So we understand that by state by state and legislator there might be differing laws or practices that may prevent employees from being able to easily obtain access to the healthcare support that they need. So our goal here is to offer comprehensive access to quality healthcare for employees seeking things such as reproductive care, medical treatments, fertility treatments, adoption support and more. And then we also have critical healthcare support when we're looking for advanced quality medical services and perhaps it's not available within 100 miles of an employee's home. So we are looking to provide reimbursement for travel expenses, airfare, lodging, and then also provide coverage under this for things such as cancer treatments, transplant surgery, gender affirming procedures and more. Next slide, please. I'm going to say that's wonderful. We get a lot of good feedback on that and it is used so it's something that's a little newer to Fnaticus and we do pride ourselves on that. Thank you. Okay, so as it pertains to recruitment and retention, we do have that two-fold approach on our DEI efforts. So first is recruiting. So we believe in the power of representation and diversity of thought. We do partner with numerous organizations to cast a wide net and attract a diverse pool of candidates. We continue to focus on sourcing strategy to deliver more diverse slates for each open position that we have. So again, some of these are just recruiting events in HBCU or historically black colleges and universities. I engage in in diverse own professional development orgs and then developing our global recruitment team that we have at Fnaticus to expand consideration of diverse backgrounds and experiences and even to reach new audiences. And then second to that is around development. So our employees have access to a world-class leadership and development training. That includes the importance of things such as inclusion, diversity, equity advocacy and training in different topics such as preventing harassment and discrimination and managing biases for both employee level and people manager level. And a few bullet points to note that that occurred this past quarter. Fnatic spending and gaming introduced the process within our tech TA efforts by which we initiated a skills-based screening prior to submitting any candidate into the interview round. So the intent here is to reduce unconscious bias within the interview process or any interview loops. And then a few of our engineers attended and presented at the 2023 Grace Hopper celebration of women in computing. And then for those who don't know what Grace Hopper is, it's a series of conferences designed to bring the research and career interest of women in computing to the forefront. And it is the world's largest gathering of women and non-binary technologists. And then lastly, the company all got together from each individual operating company and allocated funds to budget for Seacout. So Seacout is essentially a program and a platform for talent acquisition where we'll be able to understand a little bit more of our metrics and building out diverse pipelines. It provides expansive reporting and education to those that are utilizing it. So super excited for that to come along for us. I got a chair. Sure. Sorry to interrupt you, Stephanie. Just want to give you a shout out to those to you on your diversity initiatives. Keep up the good work. Thank you so much, Commissioner. I really appreciate that. Thank you, commissioners. So reflected here is our vendor and diversity vendor spend. As it relates to Massachusetts, our total vendor spend this quarter was $393,630.59. As Steph detailed in her previous slides here at FBG, we are committed to cultural diversity and increasing opportunities for diverse businesses. The total diversity overall spend for Q4 was approximately $1.18 million. Excuse me, $1.75 million. That being said, I will pass it off to Anthony to discuss our G initiatives. Thank you, Mike. Good morning, Madam Chair, commissioners and members of the MGC. I'm Anthony D'Angelo. I'm Fanatics's responsible gaming lead. So we'll start off with our underage report metrics. We added a column based on feedback that highlights individuals who were either found sports raging or attempting on our platform, just to call out these are individuals or the numbers that you see here reflect individuals that our system flagged as possibly underage based on information they gave at sign up. Okay, so the numbers you see here, the 22 in the left hand most column are individuals who at sign up given underage date of birth that our system rejected. Any questions here? Okay, great. We can go to the next slide, please. Madam Chair. Was that through the KYC that you picked that up? Yes. Just give me one example of something that a red flag would have been raised for. Yeah, a customer gives, you know, date of birth in 20, you know, being 2008, for example, they would have been 16. So we would have blocked that customer. Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry, I had my new. Madam Chair, I have a question, please. Good morning. Good morning, Anthony. Of the 22, the 22 number there, those were found sports wagering or attempted to sports wager. That's, but your number and the third column accounts suspensions due to underage is zero. So is it fair to say that of the 22, none of those individuals were able to gain access to the platform? Yeah, at registration. So once the individual enters a date of birth that's less than 21, their account is automatically suspended and they fail verification essentially so they can't gain access to our platform. Yeah, okay, thank you. Sure, of course. If no other questions, we can go to the next slide. So here we have the VSE metrics. So in the, the final quarter of 2023 we had five individuals who were VSE enrollees that were found to have accounts on the expediting gaming upon identification their accounts were immediately suspended and obviously no access no marketing things like that. Totally nine for us since since launch. Any questions here. Okay, next slide please. So then lastly and I'll speak to some work going to do some work in PGM oversight on my end not having a separate slide but this is our RG tool metrics for the quarter. We actually saw an increase in every tool usage of this quarter which is great. We have 50 about 50, sorry 45,000 active employees in Massachusetts. And, you know, we're seeing around probably a 6% or 7% usage rate, which is still low obviously, which is low in general for tool usage we continue work to try to increase tool usage and some things that we will embark on this year. So we're going to talk through with our Pgam update as well. In the last two last two bullet points but for Pgam, you know we will be having some internal and external initiatives. At the expediting gaming internal being every March we intend to refresh and re certify our all employee RG training so every FBG employee has to take a RG training. That'll be refreshed every year based off of you know changes in regulation changes in policy all that kind of stuff. Moving off an internal RG recognition program to where we're going to highlight RG champions across our organization to try to further a culture of RG from inside. And then from an external point of view we're expanding our partnership with the NTPG. We're also testing incentivization for RG tool usage which we're really excited about so. Thank you. Thanks Anthony. So, to quickly discuss the partnerships with the lottery, our partnerships team is working with the lottery on on various projects. We're hopeful in 2024 to be able to present some of those projects to you all. Last slide. Commissioner Hill as as we discussed last time. I'm happy that our holding company fanatics is announced a person it's kind partnership in which fanatics became the wish granting organization and official sports partner for the make a wish foundation. I'm happy to report in in queue for fanatics and make a wish granted over 100 wishes in in the quarter. And that is solely sports related obviously, you know, make a wish does does a lot more than than just sports related wishes, but in queue for the partnership with fanatics and make a wish was over 100 wishes. What are some of the, I'm sorry. What are what are some of the wishes fanatics granted if you just can give a few examples. So, some of the wishes was Super Bowl weekend. I know that's not q for but let's see a q for Super Bowl highlight what we did on Super Bowl weekend, but we had, you know, individuals who were who were able to come to Las Vegas and meet meet various players and engage in some of the on field activities. Okay, thank you. Madam chair. Yes, so I watched a lot of those make a wish dreams come true. This is one of my most favorite charitable organizations and during Super Bowl week, or the two weeks leading up to it. They kept showing the wishes that had been made and it brings tears to your eyes quite frankly so this is awesome and look forward to hearing some more future wishes that were granted. Thank you Madam chair. Thank you. Well, thank you all that that concludes fanatics q for 2023 presentation. Madam chair we we also want to congratulate you on your five plus years with the MGC and wish you nothing but the best and in your retirement. Michael, I appreciate that. It's been a pleasure working with Maddox and I am really excited to see how your new enterprise works really over the course of the years ahead. So good luck to the Maddox. But today, got to work ahead and today we thank you for a really nice presentation, commissions any questions for Michael and team and thank you Anthony and stuff. All right. Thank you. And, and thank you for Anthony. I think you heard me say I want to see RG tools cool. And so I'm looking forward to watching that that continuing evolution so thanks so much. We're working on it. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Crystal, is this and our work for sports weight training today.  Well, you know, that's the reflection of our guests. They did a nice job. So commissioners we do have opportunity for commissioners update anybody have an update. All right, then I'll take a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. We're going to start with commissioner Brian, commissioner Brian, you all set. I'm upset. Yep. Okay. I thank you for the changing but thank you so much. All right. Any concerns about the motion that's been seconded. All right. Commissioner Brian. I. Mr Hill, Hi, Mr. Skinner. Hi. I vote that's 5-0. Thanks everyone. Nice job, Crystal. Excellent work.


The Penn State short course? Yeah, the Penn State ice cream short course. What is that? I went there to learn about ice cream. And again, like Ben and Jerry went there. Everybody in ice cream goes. Like, you can leave or send like 30 people every year. It's just an awesome course. But from inception, we were able to see, OK, from my little batch freezer, which her name was Humble, to a massive plant like we're in now, what's the order of operations here? How is this going to run so that we didn't get this flavor that everybody loved that we couldn't replicate? We tried to make sure. I had been to the Penn State ice cream short course. So we tried to make sure that whatever we were making, it was scalable.