Select Items in the Nevada Treasury Unclaimed Property Auction Last Tuesday:
• A Canadian $2 bill
• 10-karat yellow-gold 1977 class ring (Rancho High) with damage
• Overwound lady's pendant watch with gold-filled chain
• Three $5 Harold's Club Reno gaming chips; three $5 Harrah's Club tokens
Media Campaigns R Us
Boulder City is getting $100,000 (from LVCVA and the Boulder City Redevelopment Agency) to launch a media campaign to bring tourists from Las Vegas. No surprise, R&R Partners wound up with the contract, and to keep that sense of deja vu came up with a slogan to do the trick: "A World Away for a Day." The point being that Boulder City is different than Las Vegas. Bet you didn't know that. The Las Vegas Sun quotes a Boulder City councilman's wistful hopes that this will be as big a success for his town as an earlier marketing campaign was for Elko, Nevada. When will someone suggest that maybe the $100,000 would be better spent on improving schools, helping the poor or fixing potholes?
Awww. That's So Upstanding and Moral
Former county commissioner and lobbyist Lance Malone remains free on $350,000 bail until his appeal of his conviction in the extortion and fraud case for campaign bribes for political favors. Please note, however, says the R-J:
"Malone's attorney, Dominic Gentile, asked that his client be allowed to travel to Utah for church services, and the judge granted his request."
Didn't See This Coming, Mr. Cassidy. Really.
From a press release: "THE RAT PACK IS CLOSED !
"Due to unforeseen and irreconcilable circumstances on both artistic and managerial levels, RPIB, Inc. has closed THE RAT PACK IS BACK! at The Supper Club on Broadway. The musical began preview performances on Thursday, November 17th at The Supper Club (240 West 47th Street, New York, NY) where it played eight (8) performances and received audience acclaim. THE RAT PACK IS BACK! was scheduled to open on Monday, December 19th. Cowritten by David Cassidy and Don Reo, the musical production starred Julian Rebolledo (as Dean), Eric Jordan Young (as Sammy), Michael Civisca (as Frank) and Mark Cohen (as Joey), with a special appearance by Mr. Cassidy."
China China Bang Bang
The AP reported that two Chinese tourism officials will address the annual Governor's Conference on Tourism at Wynn on Monday. The article quoted Nevada Commission on Tourism Director Bruce Bommarito saying, "These are top-notch people." Meanwhile, their top-notch government in Bejing was shrugging off charges that troops had gunned down 20 defenseless villagers during protests near Hong Kong.
Strange Sight of the Week
For those who haven't been to the north end of Boulder Highway for a while, the slow-mo dismantling of the Castaways makes for an odd visual. First, they aren't blowing it up. That's downright un-Las Vegan; it's been too long since the last good implosion. Second, they're taking it apart from the bottom up: the lower half is a skeleton of metal girders; the top half remains intact. It almost seems to be the result of a natural erosion rather than demolition. Then again, since that part of town isn't a magnet for redevelopment, maybe that's exactly what's happening.
Martin Stein [Heart]s Maureen Dowd
In a recent op-ed piece, the New York Times' screechy Maureen "Mo-Mo" Dowd dropped her Juicy Box and turned her attention from disemboweling former friends and co-workers to the lack of solo female network news anchors. (The news of Elizabeth Vargas' appointment to co-anchor ABC's World News Tonight with "the pretty boy android Bob Woodruff" is a slap in the face to Barbara Walters and Connie Chung, Mo-Mo says.)
Mo-Mo decries what she sees as obvious sexism based upon an alleged chat with one of the Times' many, many, many anonymous sources (hasn't the Gray Lady learned anything from Jayson Blair? Isn't the term "Gray Lady" itself sexist, or is it a term of honor, which means it's also a sexist attack on men ... why not the Gray Man instead?).
Bouncing up and down in her seat, her hand waving wildly in the air like Arnold Horshack, Mo-Mo whines that with Big, Serious Male Journalists like Aaron Brown being named one of People's Sexiest Man Alive (a title Mo-Mo wanted for herself), it's only fair that someone like Katie Couric be given the anchor chair. Yes, that's Pretty Katie, who recently interviewed Ramsey "The War Criminal's Best Friend" Clark in which she let Lydon LaRouche's bestest friend ever prattle on about how inconvenienced is his current bestest friend ever, Saddam "Butcher of Baghdad" Hussein, who isn't allowed to have Doritos in his cell.
Now, far be it from the Weekly to stop a woman from taking a rightful place as network anchor (we've got plenty of women bosses ourselves, both here and throughout the Greenspun Media Group), but can't Mo-Mo do a better job than her first paragraph: "Can the network nightly news anchor evolve from the Daddy chair to the Mommy chair?" A better question might be: "Can the Times hand Mo-Mo her Juicy Box and regain its status as a Big, Serious Newspaper?
It's Not Real. Montecito Is Not Real. The Show is Not Real. However:
Associated Press: "Puck Restaurant Added to Las Vegas ...
"The restaurant is the most recent addition to the set of Las Vegas which already features a casino floor, lounge, club, sports book and reception area.
Puck and his restaurant will be featured beginning Jan. 9, the network said.
"'Wolfgang Puck is the man who originally brought world-class cuisine to Las Vegas, revolutionizing dining in Sin City,' said executive producer Gary Scott Thompson. 'Wolfgang's restaurant is the perfect dining destination for the characters of Las Vegas.'
"The Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group owns and operates six restaurants in Las Vegas ..."