LETTERS

In last week's cover story, contributing editor Richard Abowitz recounted his attempt to spend 24 hours in a strip club while dying from a head cold. At least one reader was unmoved by Richard's suffering:

Dude, next time, remember your readers.

No one gives a shit about your cold when you are surrounded by bush.

Editor's note:
It was just a topless club, Dave; no topiary was in view.

Max Jacobson's broadside at food critic John Mariani in last week's issue—in response to some anti-Vegas potshots the Esquire restaurant scribe had taken in his online newsletter—drew this rejoinder from Mariani:

I'm glad to see we agree on some things about Las Vegas, and our disagreements are worth discussing at another time.

But your contention that it is wholly unnecessary for a celebratory chef to do more than pay an occasional visit to oversee the restaurant that bears his name is an empty one. For the same reason that an NFL coach of hardened pros shows up at every game but doesn't run a single play and for the same reason that the conductor of a symphony orchestra whose musicians are the finest in the world shows up every night to express his own personal vision without playing a note himself, so too chefs who DO stay in their kitchens oversee a well-trained staff that needs constant focus from the master.

Having the same ingredients at one restaurant in no way even begins to guarantee the results will be the same on the plate. In fact, it's unimaginable that they ever would be.

More to the point, if what I said about absentee chefs is nonsense, why has Steve Wynn mandated that the name chefs he is hiring for his new restaurants at his new resort move to Vegas and cook in Vegas on a nightly basis? Indeed, Wynn himself told me after my essay ran, "This is what we've been working towards for the last four years." For you to suggest it doesn't matter if Mario Batali or Jean-George Vongerichten or Tom Colicchio spends most of his time 2,000 miles away from the restaurant with his name on it is to believe, as I wrote in my essay, that an Elvis impersonator can be as good as the real Elvis.

The following arrived in response to Kate Silver's report on a mysterious stench at the Advanced Technologies Academy (May 20):

I graduated A-tech class of 2000, and I can tell you that the smell was there ever since I can remember. For the most part, no one said anything because no one thought it was really that serious (you can thank the administration for that, I suppose). Any kind of pain I would have in my gut or my head I chalked up to the stress of school or growing pains. I would have headaches, muscle aches, stomachaches, and no matter how much I ate I never gained a pound. I even went to the doctor for my "bad" knees and back and yet because I was young, I never thought that was anything more than just part of growing up.

Well, wouldn't you just know it—a year ago, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Fancy that.

So here I am now, after a year in hell.

My life has been ripped apart; I lost both of my jobs, I'm broke and all of my belongings are ether in storage with my father in Henderson or with my fiancé in Portland. And don't even get me started on how hard this has been on her! (Thank you, Suzette, for being so strong for me!) I am in North Carolina staying with my mother, trying to recover after being in the hospital numerous times.

Now I come to find out that the old high- school stink may be responsible for the pain I've gone through?! Words cannot describe my anger and frustration.

Since I read your article, I have done a lot of research on hydrogen sulfide, and I've found that the symptoms I experienced during high school match those of someone with long-term exposure to the gas. I'm mad as hell that the teachers that work hard at what they do are not only getting the cold shoulder from the administration, but are also getting really sick!

Well, I want to talk to someone. Anyone. Everyone! Someone is going to have to answer for this! They are going to have to answer to the maddest 110-pound 22-year-old from Vegas they ever met!

I would like to hear from any one regarding this terrible situation, please e-mail me at [email protected].

PS: I've got another colonoscopy on June 9. Anyone from the administration who thinks that there is nothing serious about the gas should have one of those. Nothing like having someone shoving a camera up your ass to make you want to re-evaluate a situation.

Kate Silver's As We See It report on a new joint in the city's fledgling "entertainment district" prompted this letter:

News of the planned "movie-oke" joint sounds really appealing, it sounds as though it has a lot of potential. Though I don't gamble myself, I have my doubts about the entertainment district surviving (or even getting off the ground) given that gaming seems to be the key ingredient to most entertainment commercial successes in this town. Unfortunately, Neonopolis is an obvious example of the failure of a nongaming establishment in a gaming town (undeniably the gaming capital of the world). I would just hate to see another colossal failure in an already failing part of town.

Another concern of mine about East Fremont is the preservation of its historical architecture, something I seldom hear any discussion about. Most would ask, "What historical architecture?" Most are not originally from here, most don't realize that Vegas is a very young town, that Downtown and its surrounding areas are very valuable to its history (there isn't much left). The pre-'70s architectural buildings and signs that are predominant in the area are what immediately come to mind. Current and prospective businesses for the area should be encouraged to maintain and restore their properties to their original early-20th- century grandeur. For the area to retain its original exterior appearance as an overall theme would be a brilliant idea. For crying out loud, it's practically the only historical stuff left in town. It would disgust me to see new business move in only to have all the original signage, facades and buildings removed or torn down to make way for "the new" (something that can be seen anywhere else you go). Just how much difference in costs could there be between restoring and revamping the current architecture versus demolition and erecting new structures from the ground up? Even the City Center Motel, for example—why in the hell did they go through all the trouble and expense to put that ugly modern stucco facade on the building when they could've cleaned the place up and breathed new life into what already existed, a wonderful, classic late-'50s motel, a piece of Vegas history on Vegas' most historical street?

Most major cities put forth admirable efforts to retain their historical parts of town. For the few blocks of historical areas left (much of it neglected or molested) in Las Vegas it should be of high priority to preserve them. Especially for those who refer to Las Vegas as home.

Terry Brauer's letter in the June 3 Las Vegas Weekly (Vent/Spleen/Politics, Part 2) was excellent, with the exception of one glaring omission. Bush lied to the people of Nevada about the Yucca Mountain repository. I also think we should start referring to it as the "Yucca Mountain Suppository" because Bush is clearly shoving it up Nevadans' asses.

What happened to chocolate Exlax? Thirty years ago, you take one chocolate Exlax at night—in the morning you go to the bathroom. You are ready to go to work.

Now, it's in high-price pills. The directions are: Take one pill at night—if it don't work, take two pills at night. If it don't work, see your doctor. The pill pushers have a good racket going.

Editor's note:
This is perhaps a query best addressed to the investigative unit of the Las Vegas Senior Press or the Living section of the Review-Journal, which no doubt has remarkably similar demographics and will almost certainly assign a 50-inch think piece on the subject.