Catching up...

The Stardust thing took a massive bite out of me, but I've rested up and finished a pretty cool piece for a lawyer magazine on Bob Faiss, the father of Nevada gaming law. He's really an interesting and super-nice guy -- and the inspiration for this week's trivia question at TheStripPodcast.Com -- and what I love most is that he lives in Boulder City. You know, the only city in Nevada where gambling is illegal.

Anyhow, those who listen to "The Strip" know I have a love-hate relationship with the Review-Journal. I worked there for three years in the 1990s, which was the happiest time in my career as a full-time employee. And many of the reporters there are friends and they do the best they can with the limited vision and resources they are provided.

BUT... the features section is a disgrace. They seem to try their level best to bore the crap out of everyone, with some minor exceptions, which must be a challenge in a city like, uh, VEGAS. Entertainment scribe Mike Weatherford is excellent and unmissable and Corey Levitan's schtick as a stooge working odd jobs is wearing thin but I admire his pluck and I'm delighted the R-J is doing ANYTHING multimedia since I'm told the editors nixed the idea of political reporters doing blogs.

Still, I was reminded AGAIN how silly the section is by this bizarre piece by John Pryzbys (who shares my birthday, so he can't be all bad) from Monday's paper about SHARING A FRIDGE AT WORK. Can you imagine the incident at the R-J that spawned this brilliant idea?

The other baffling thing is a recent Sunday addition called "Strip Tips" in which they give away such important Vegas tourist secrets as, uh, that there's some little water show in front of the Bellagio. No, really. I can't find the link right now, but, wow.