Opinion
Comrade Grumpy’s Peeve of the Week
Sheep Art
June 21st, 2012
It always scares me. I’m driving down I-15 near Russell, and suddenly (and repeatedly) a massive bighorn sheep jumps out at me. I brake and doubletake. WTF is a massive bighorn sheep—or a horse; is that a horse next to that sheep?—doing so close to the freeway? Read more »
The Latest Thought
Siegel’s Shadow
Sixty-five years after Bugsy got whacked, an old associate’s got some theories to share
June 21st, 2012
The police never solved Bugsy Siegel’s murder. There is no shortage of suspects or theories; Siegel was a violent man in a brutal world with more than his share of enemies. Estes Kefauver, chairman of the U.S. Senate’s early-1950s mob-busting committee, thought that a squabble over the race wire doomed Siegel. Or it might have been his role in a Mexican heroin-trafficking operation gone bad. Bernie Sindler has his own theory: Siegel, always a volatile man, got abusive with Hill one time too many; she fled to Europe, but not before one of her six brothers, a marine with an expert rifleman’s badge stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif., vowed his revenge. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
Are Bartenders the New Dealers?
June 21st, 2012
For decades, becoming a casino dealer was a guaranteed ticket to a middle-class income, even without the benefit of a college education or long vocational training. But because of changes in technology and in the casino business itself, bartending is looking more and more like the new deal for post-recession Vegas. Read more »
The Latest Thought
Cancer Makes a Killing
Have we turned a disease into a celebrity?
June 14th, 2012
Cancer is a rock star. I want to hire cancer’s PR firm. The damn thing has diversified, outsourced, broken into every market. It has clothing lines, houseware accessories, those fucking annoying rubber bracelets that give adolescent boys the excuse to sport “I ♥ boobies” on their wrists. Cancer pushes magnet ribbons of varied hue and trinkets that would be the envy of any swag-bag-toting conventioneer. Even firearms distributors are trying to profit from cancer’s PR glow. Now you can rob the corner store while raising awareness of breast cancer with your pink-slide Walther “Hope Edition” handgun. We just love cancer. Read more »
Inside the Friday Effect
June 12th, 2012
The April numbers for Nevada gaming are in, and at first blush they look fantastic ... but a closer examination reveals the disappointing truth: Things were actually only so-so in April. Read more »
The Latest Thought
Breaking the Spell
It’s time to teach the DJ culture to mind its ABCs and 123s
June 7th, 2012
Is this going to be one of those grumpy-old-man commentaries?” Read more »
Green Felt Journal
Electric Daisy Economics
June 7th, 2012
Generally speaking, if you want to bring an event to Las Vegas, the town is happy to oblige, provided you do three things: 1. Fill rooms with people who … 2. Open their wallets and … 3. Don’t disturb the other paying guests. Read more »
The Latest Thought
A Season Unbound
It’s summertime. Do you know where your books are?
May 31st, 2012
There are two types of summer reading: The kind that makes you smarter. And the kind that makes you dumber. Read more »
The Latest Thought
Killing Time
With techno-efficiency like this, who needs inefficiency?
May 24th, 2012
The other day, I read a column in the UK’s Daily Mail about how Twitter is not only ruining the nuanced beauty of the English language, but also—along with technological devices of all kinds—taking us away from actually participating in the present, allowing us too many diversions from in-the-moment interactions with people, or with nature, or with our own whole paragraphs of thought. I read that column on my cellphone, while waiting in my car for the drive-up ATM. There were no cars in line for the human tellers; their lanes were open and empty. But I waited. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
Here’s One Trip Worth Taking
May 24th, 2012
VegasTripping.com isn’t a marketing mouthpiece. It’s not trying to sell you anything. And that might be why it’s become an Internet sensation. Read more »
