GRAY MATTERS

News, observations, stray thoughts + medically supervised brain drainings about our city



Pahrump, Here We Come



"Every 24 hours, another two acres of Las Vegas land are developed for commercial or residential use."



—Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce




Avenue Q & A


In an interview with Playbill magazine earlier this month, the new Broadway badass on the Vegas Strip, Avenue Q star/puppeteer John Tartaglia, had a few observations about audience reaction in his new home city (at least for the next 12 weeks—he's signed through December 12, but says he might extend his stay):


• "Some of our audiences have never seen a Broadway show, but we're getting standing ovations. Lucy the Slut gets a bigger reaction here because she's very much like a showgirl. And she gets a stripper pole now, which I love. They go wild over 'The Internet is For Porn,' and we get a bigger reaction than ever to the puppet sex because it's got that Sin City feel."


• When asked, "How does the George Bush joke go over in a red state like Nevada?" (in a list of life's obstacles in the song, "Only For Now," the cast shouts "GEORGE BUSH!"), Tartaglia says: "Mixed. Those who really agree give a loud response, but there are also a lot of stern faces. But I think we've been getting a stronger reaction lately because many people are angry at Bush over Hurricane Katrina."




In Case You Wondered How Clark County Names Its Schools


From the Joliet Herald-News, Joliet, Illinois:


"A new school in Las Vegas bears the name of heroic Joliet-area native Kathy Batterman, the nation's first certified flight nurse.


"Batterman died at age 44 in 1999 when the Flight for Life helicopter she was riding in crashed during a snowstorm. She logged more than 3,000 flights during her 18-year career and is credited with saving the lives of thousands of critically ill or wounded patients.


"Colleagues at Valley Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas nominated Batterman for the honor. The Clark County School District opened Kathy L. Batterman Elementary School on Aug. 29."


Finally, CCSD does something that makes good sense.




Screw a Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, What We Really Need are More Post Offices



"Forcing such an unprecedented health and safety burden on any State in this way cannot meet the most elementary constitutional threshold. Strikingly, respondents not once acknowledge the ramifications of their decisions. Respondents' defense of their 'plenary' right to do anything on federal property might as well be justifying the construction of a post office instead of a lethal waste dump."



—From U.S. Court of Appeals (District of Columbia Circuit) lawsuit, State of Nevada vs. United States of America




More Proof That All TV Stars Start or Finish as Vegas Strippers


From The Smoking Gun, September 12: "Trump contestant had "relationship" with client now on death row.


"The newest season of NBC's The Apprentice doesn't debut until next week, but we've already made our pick for Donald Trump's next flunky. Meet Alla Wartenberg, whose network bio describes her as a 31-year-old Russian expat who has made millions running a chain of Las Vegas spas. Left off Alla's online c.v. is her work at the Palomino Club, a Sin City strip joint where the female talent works topless and bottomless. Wartenberg (nee Kosova) once hustled $40 lap dances under the pseudonym Ecstasy (just "X" to her friends). It was during her Palomino days that Wartenberg developed a "pretty platonic relationship" with a regular named Robert Acremant, a California businessman who would pay her between $500-$1,500 (and sometimes more) for an evening's worth of dances and company in the private Lipstick Lounge ... It was this courtship of Wartenberg, investigators would later contend, that drove a desperate Acremant—who needed money to spend on his favorite Vegas stripper—to plot the 1995 robbery of two Oregon women ... Convicted in the slayings, Acremant has been sentenced to death in both California and Oregon, where he is currently imprisoned."




For the Love of God, Can't Someone Shut This Man Up?



"By choosing an avowed lesbian for this national event [the Emmys], these Hollywood elites have clearly invited God's wrath ... Is it any surprise that the Almighty chose to strike at Miss Degeneres' hometown [New Orleans]?"



—Pat Robertson, 700 Club, Sunday, 9/11/2005.




So Many Nows. So Little Time.


A local organization called Peace NOW will be rallying September 24 in "support of education, housing, healthcare, jobs, sovereignty, and peace NOW!" at noon in Huntridge Circle Park. Just to clarify, this is not the same organization as Peace Now, formed in Israel and concerned with co-existence between Israelies and Palestinians:


"We are not affiliated with the Israeli organization also known as Peace Now. In fact, we will most likely be changing our group's name after this event due to this fact, but for now we try to distinguish our name by capitalizing the NOW," says a Peace NOW representative.




So People Party. Even Now. 'Get Over It.'



"[New Orleans] Mayor [Ray] Nagin has announced that, as bodies are still being found and as a public health catastrophe descends upon the city, he is sending 60 percent of his cops on city funds for a little R&R, mostly to Las Vegas hotels. Asked if it was appropriate to party in these circumstances, he responded: 'New Orleans is a party town. Get over it.'"



—Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post Writer's Group, Review-Journal.




Cheap Eats?


From Ask Rick, in BayInsider.com:


"Question: Unless I am mistaken, it's hard to find cheap eats anymore in Las Vegas, something the town was once very famous for.—Torres in Los Angeles


"You're not mistaken, Torres. Las Vegas used to be famous for its bargain-basement buffets and cheap prime-rib dinners. These days, even the "cheap" restaurants on the Strip charge well over $10 a person for a full meal."


Rick recommends: 1.Bougainvillea Cafe in Terrible's Hotel; 2. Capriotti's Deli; 3. Ming in Imperial Palace; 4. Round-Up Grill at the Westward Ho; and PTs!

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