Australia’s Knogs are a quirky, hip, indisputably batty, and seemingly brilliant lot. Their latest catalog “12½ Stories,” for lack of a suitable description, is part fantasy, part instruction manual, part ransom note (We have your attention and we’re not giving it back until you buy some Knog gear). It’s so engrossing it will leave you [...]

Flashback. Eight-thirty a.m. and the blue-haired seniors are chain-smoking their way through another tub of quarters at the Venetian slots. Dealers shuffle from foot to foot at their empty tables waiting for the action to pick up, or the world to end. In their ruddy brown uniforms they look sad, empty and in need of [...]