One wonders when the universe will tire of Vegas, but evidence is scarce. It's not all about the parties anymore—despite the upcoming E! TV series Party at the Palms. The June issue of Harper's features a plum story on the test site, the possible return to nuke testing, and a visit to the atomic testing museum. The June issue of the Atlantic Monthly features Bernard-Henri Lévy mellowly chronicling a visit to women's death row in North Las Vegas and a brothel in Pahrump. And Rolling Stone? Features a Vegas kid who's tops on the poker circuit. Not a single mention of "tacky"—just some straight-up interest in these environs. What gives?
Michael Jackson Reaction
In, er, commemoration of Michael Jackson being found not guilty of child molestation charges, V-108 (107.9-FM), played songs all afternoon from the former king of pop. The DJs also invited callers to express their opinions. A sampling:
—"In the two biggest cases in America, black people got off." The caller was referring to Jackson and O.J. Simpson's acquittal on murder charges in the deaths of his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman
—"God was on his side."
—"Can you play 'Beat It'?"
From the Editorial Page of Tuesday's Review- Journal: We're Not Building Enough Roads! Can you believe it? Now, we all can agree that the nation's roads are becoming more congested, and we're spending more time in traffic. But the R-J aims its guns squarely at those whining green liberal whackjob organizations that are trying to move funding into light rail, buses and other mass transit options. (Damn them!)
"Millions of duped Americans have no idea these organizations are, in fact, responsible for the gridlock that irritates them every day," the paper crows.
Come again?
"Since 1980," the paper's rant continues, "the nation's road capacity has increased only 5 percent ... Liberal groups have gone all-out to throw roadblocks in front of plans to add needed pavement." Yes. Yes. Let us build more roads. Briiliant! Oh, wait a second. This also just in. That's pretty much all we've been doing. According to the Texas Transportation Institute, in 1982 Las Vegas had 160 miles of freeway, 440 miles of principal arterial streets, and a roadway network of 1,725 miles. By 2003, our freeway system had grown to 485 miles, the principal arterial streets had increased slightly to 495 miles, and the roadway network had grown to 3,235 miles.
And lots of contaminants, too! Las Vegas Valley Water District's 2005 Water Quality Report has some interesting data.
Regulated contaminants treated by the water district last year: barium, bromate, fluoride, 2 4-D, nitrate, selenium, free chlorine residual, lead, copper, total coliforms, total trihalomethanes, haloacetic acids, alpha particles, beta particles, photon emitters, radium 226 and radium 228, uranium.
Unregulated contaminants treated by the water district last year: perchlorate and sulfate.
40,000: Number of water samples analyzed in 2004.
24,365: Hours technicians monitor the local water supply.
Hit the Agassi Pot!
Given Andre Agassi's disappointingly swift departure from last month's French Open, it may not bode well that the star agreed last week to allow his name and image to appear on a series of slot machines at the MGM Grand.
An inflamed sciatic nerve hobbled Agassi at Roland Garros so bad that he couldn't even limp out of the first round. His last major was the 2003 Australian Open, two and a half years ago. So maybe you shouldn't expect too much, you know, luck from the Andre penny slots. However, a percentage of the proceeds will go to his local charitable foundation (which has already raised some $50 million). This only confirms that among athletes, Agassi is one of the great winners. Yo, Michael Jordan, are you listening?
At the Mensa Festival:
At CineVegas, there was a large poster of the original Miss Atomic. The following conversation took place between a Weekly staffer and a young woman who was looking at the poster:
Staffer: We had a modern Miss Atomic on the cover of our Centennial issue.
Young woman: Was she nude?
A philosophical question: If Miss Atomic lost her mushroom cloud, would she still be Miss Atomic?