STATE OF THE CITY |
Caution: Dangerous Drivers Ahead On paper, Nevada is a traffic-friendly state, containing 13 of the 16 laws recommended by Washington, D.C.-based Advocacy for Highway and Auto Safety. But you know from driving our roads—the terminally clogged Spaghetti Bowl, the sidewinding Beltway, the NASCAR action at Sahara and Decatur—that the truth is seldom found on paper. Or in the paper. Advocacy's communications director, Jan Maly, says a Review-Journal story about the group's report—headlined "Silver State's traffic safety laws praised; Nevada second only to California"—creates a false impression of safety in a state ninth in traffic fatalities for all large metro areas. (Our motor vehicle death rate beats the national average!) "He made up the comparison that Nevada is second to California," Maly says of Omar Sofradzija's January 8 story. "To say Nevada is second behind California is not accurate. These were not rankings. Grading is a better word. States were only graded by how many laws they had on the books. We're not trying to bash the states, we just want to highlight what needs to be done. Nevada still a lot of work to do." Asked to review Advocacy's report, Michelle Ernst, senior analyst for the Surface Transportation Policy Project—the D.C. group that labeled Vegas the 16th most dangerous city for pedestrians in 2000—notes that it provides "a terrific survey of state traffic safety laws" but "does not appear to look at state policies regarding transportation investments." (What good is a law without the means to enforce it?) Nor does Advocacy's report address nonmotorist safety, a hot topic in Nevada. Nationally, bicyclists or pedestrians comprise 13 percent of traffic fatalities, but that number rises to 16 percent in Nevada, which also slightly underspends on bicycle and pedestrian safety. Nevada has the seventh-highest bicyclist/pedestrian fatality rate, 2.61 per 100,000, with Las Vegas ranking eighth among large metro areas at 2.74 per 100,000. Maly says Advocacy didn't consider deaths, because larger states would have more, or pedestrian deaths, "because that's not under our purview." Aside from shoring up gaps in state law—Advocacy dinged Nevada on teenage driving, seat-belt enforcement, leaving children unattended and red light cameras—Ernst says Nevada needs better traffic laws aimed at helping bicyclists and pedestrians. "Better road design may be even more effective." So there you go! Better road des ... aw, crap. |
Silver State Priorities, by the Numbers
1 year: Length of residency required by university regents before students can pay in-state tuition.
6 months: Length of residency required by state law before students can pay in-state tuition.
6 weeks: Time you have to spend in Nevada before state law will grant residency to those seeking divorce.
30 days: Amount of time you have to live in a city before running for mayor.
The One-Minute Food Critic: A Review of Subway's New Low-Carb Atkins Wrap in the Form of Six Responses to Eating One
1. Suggested slogan number one: "Just five or six of these little guys are like an actual meal!"
2. To the question, "What will technology come up with next?," Subway has resoundingly answered: barely edible tortillas!
3. What Dr. Atkins didn't tell us: Carbs are the tasty parts.
4. Did Jared sign off on this? Because if he didn't, I'm not eatin' it.
5. Suggested slogan number two: "Small and tasteless, but good for you!" (Note: See if R-J has already trademarked that phrase.)
6. Try the bigger, tastier, more expensive Southwest Chicken Wrap at Hot Rod Grill instead; it may not be low-carb, but life's too short to give a damn.
A Weblog to Check Out
Disdaining the interior gaze and moist explorations of self common to the blog form, Jeremy Parker has put together a website that instead tries to incisively examine local goings-on. In addition to long, thoughful, generally well-informed takes on such issues as the Horseshoe situation, we like him for his site's careful parsing of local media. Sure, he's zapped the Weekly for the alleged sexpotism of our covers, and he seems too appreciative of the wooden stylings of Sun columnist Jeff German, but at least his critiques are nonpartisan and lack the gratuitous snark that mars other media commentary. www.lasvegasweblog.blogspot.com
Who Were Those Cow-Masked Men?
Four grown men donned their oversized, furry, custom-made cow heads and tip-hoofed into the National Association of Television Programming Executives conference Sunday, where they burst into favorites like "Moo York City." There was no stage. No booking. And, apparently, not a lot of security. The four men, who answer to the name the Moo Beams, sang their not-quite-famous moo-wop for about 15 or 20 minutes before they were escorted away from the convention center. "The cows were put out to pasture," says producer Gary Sax, who also moooonlights as Blackie, leader of the Moo Beams. Not all of the cows had passes to get into the show, so they all decided to hoof it. "They had cow chips, but not passes," Sax laments. Only time will tell if TV producers, inspired by the performance, beat a cowpath to their door.
Of Roasts, Ghosts and Absent Hosts
Those who consider Don Rickles and Foster-Brooks the height of absolute hilarity are no doubt hooked on those infomercials for the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts videos that Gold-33 (KFBT-TV) airs on weekends and late-night and whenever else they've got nothing better to slap on. You remember: the roaring laughter and quippy banter between long-dead stars—Redd Foxx, Jimmy Stewart, Milton Berle, Freddie Prinze, George Burns, Jack Benny, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr.--roasting the "Man of the Hour" in tuxes and gowns, in the good old days, when Charlie Callas was a major star.
But since we're in a reality-TV age, we thought we'd remind folks of the truth behind those poison-tipped toasts, which were taped at the old MGM.
"The show was something of an illusion," according to freespace.virgin.net, in a link called "The Million Dollar Rip Off and Other TV appearances."
"Martin wasn't usually present, and his reaction shots were repeatedly duplicated and edited into the shows. Similarly, editing initially allowed the illusion to persist that the guests were together at the same time. Even the presence of an audience was the result of trickery, with the same shots of the same audience (in the same outfits) appearing week after week."
Bob Newhart once commented that he would come in to tape his shtick with cardboard cutouts of the stars along the supposedly star-studded dais.
Heartbreaking, isn't it?
Reason No. 2,869,731 That We Have No Faith in Politicians
Though he says he won't be paid from a controversial lease-purchase deal between the state and Nevada Real Property Corp., where he serves as resident agent and officer—voters banned the state from such deals in 1994; the Supreme Court allowed them in 2001—State Treasurer Brian Krolicki offered lukewarm penance for backdooring the 120,000-square foot Department of Conservation and Natural Resources building past lawmakers, including Gov. Kenny Guinn and Attorney General Brian Sandoval.
"I apologize. I will disclose in the future."
Tourist Holds Herself to Exacting Standards
"At least I wasn't the girl vomiting on the bar."—
From a Sarasota Herald-Tribune article about a few 21-year-old girls on their first trip to Las Vegas.