From The Files of: OMG

Everyone has seen these:


In fact, I mocked those as "claw-for-crap" machines in a post in December about an outing with my niece, Allyson, on Long Island. Here she is with said machine:


Well, last night at the Las Vegas Club Hotel-Casino, I discovered this:



Yes, people! It is as it appears. You give them $2 and you try for your very own 1-1.5-lb lobster! If you catch it, Tinoco's Kitchen at the Las Vegas Club will prepare it for you as you like it. Sides and drinks are extra.

Here's a closer look:



What a concept, right? I took a little video of Enrique Tinoco, the owner, showing me how it works. It's only 30 seconds and here it is:




Tinoco says people catch 4-5 a day. They do seem easier to get a grip on than some stuffed animal, huh?

As it happens, Las Vegas is somehow NOT on the forefront of this gambling cruelty-to-animals concept. It's been around in the lobster-rich regions of the northeast for as far back as 2007 and evidently originated in Japan. Not surprising, animal-rights advocates are appalled, as seen by this piece from South Florida in May.

Meanwhile, here's some dude explaining how this is actually a path to liberation for some lobsters:



And the blogger at SeriousEats.Com last year wrote it up, too. One of his commenters responded: "We have this machine at a bar down the street from us. A couple of the puny lobsters have money rubberbanded to their claw to entice someone to go after them."

If they tried that in Vegas, would they need to get it approved by the Gaming Control Board first?

Downtown Sights and Ruminations

I had to head downtown today to do an interview at the spankin' new and hyper-green Molasky Corporate Center, the state's first building to be certified LEED Gold. There were lots of interesting things about it, from the insulation made from old jeans to the hardwood flooring that comes from old phone poles to the fact that the parking garage floors were named "Conserve" and "Solar" and stuff like that.

My favorite thing, though, had nothing to do with the carbon footprint. It was this unusual bit of public art, a mammoth chess board that people can actually play on.


From the top floor, we could look down and see the mile-long train on the Union Pacific tracks of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Evidently, they're in town. I hate the circus. It made me sad to think that all those poor animals were idled in those train cars in 100+ heat and I couldn't do anything about it. Sad. Say what you will about Las Vegas, this is the city that proved that you make billions staging cruelty-free circuses starring - wait for it - humans!


And finally, a question: What the heck is up with this discoloration at the Golden Nugget?


Anyone know?

UPDATE, 4:05 pm PT: Justin McVay, the Golden Nugget's publicist, writes in that they're testing out different facade looks in trying to decide what look to go with for their new 500-room, $150m tower due to be finished in late 2009. The blue crane in the foreground of the photo is part of that. It's fascinating -- and surprising -- that they'd use the actual building to test out looks. That's a pretty big experiment, and even so I can't get my head around what it would look like writ large across the tower.

The New Downtown Las Vegas?

My long, long, long, LONG awaited piece on a massive new development (including the Frank Gehry building, model at right) immediately west of downtown Vegas called Union Park that could radically alter the future of the city's aged urban core -- or accelerate its demise -- is finally out. It's a huge display piece in Wednesday's New York Times, with color pictures and a map and everything.

To give you some idea of how long I labored on this, I interviewed Oscar Goodman back in January. Then, for some reason, I developed a weird block and kept putting off writing the story as the months flipped by. Bad. There's always something else to write.

Anyway, I'm quite pleased with the results. Check it out here. It's the longest piece I've ever written for the Times.

Jan Jones' Assault on Oscar Mayor

Jon Ralston had an astonishing chat yesterday on his TV show, "Face To Face," with Harrah's VP Jan Jones that included some incendiary remarks. The episode isn't available online yet but will be at this link for a few days once it is. Jones, of course, is Mayor Oscar Goodman's predecessor.

Here's some of what she said, courtesy of Jon's daily email blast, the Ralston Flash. See Jon's site here.

On Goodman's remarks to Bob Herbert of the New York Times (read his column here):

"It was inexcusable. Mayor Goodman is elected to represent the people. It's fine to be flippant. It's fine to walk out with showgirls. But, you have an obligation to maintain a sense of dignity and stature about the city you represent. Going off to the New York Times about why we should open up a brothel district downtown is disrespectful."

On whether it's safer for prostitutes to be in legal brothels:

"Trafficking of women is better for women? Having a mayor of a city stand up and say that is somehow acceptable? Making that a way we characterize the City of Las Vegas where many of us are proud to live here, proud of our neighborhoods, proud of our schools, wanting our children to be proud of where we grow up?

I travel not only the country, but the world. I still find myself more often than not having to explain about the real Las Vegas.

The stereotypes all still exist. The first thing they say is crime, corruption, trafficking in women. It's difficult when you know a completely different city.

They (tourists) don't find themselves here for the seedy down and out reasons that are often characterized. They come to have a good time, and they do have a good time. They come to vacation, recreate, gamble, spa and a number of different reasons. But, all of a sudden making this a city about prostitution, what right comes with that? Crime, drugs ... stop it."

On why Goodman doesn't face more scrutiny for his comments:

Somehow people think it's funny, and maybe that's a sad commentary. When our top elected officials are seen as comedians and caricatures, instead of statesmen, is that the direction we want to go?

On whether there's a sense that Goodman's not taken seriously by business leaders:

I think there is quite a bit of that. Nobody wants to offend Oscar, because he's the mayor and he's obviously not shy about the comments he'll make. But, I don't think that's about leading.

Somebody asked me what Oscar should be looking for in his last four years. Oscar, everybody's going to have a legacy. What's your legacy going to be? Bobblehead dolls? Or are you really going to look to make some definitive changes that leave your imprint on the community you served for 12 years? 12 years of service, there's something to be said for that.

On whether he deserves credit for the moves he's made downtown:

"I think that's all fine. I really do. Most of that land, respectfully this is a long process, was set aside before Oscar.

Don Snyder and I have been working on the performing arts center for almost 15 years. That's the time it takes. I hope the furniture mart is an extraordinary success. Downtown needs that. I hope they find a way to link Fremont Street into that corridor. I think all of that is very good. So, focus on that. Don't focus on demeaning the good things you've done by saying foolish things like creating a brothel district."

Yowza! Them's fightin' words!

Good readin's

Since today was a travel day, I got to go through several newspapers. Many national journalists claim they read four or five a day, but I don't read that fast. It used to make me feel guilty that I barely ever got through the local newspaper, let alone fill up on USAT, NYT, WSJ, WP, LAT and whatever else the fancy people pretend they read cover to cover. Then I lived in China and had no access to Western newspapers or an unfiltered Internet and realized I could function just fine as a journalist without all that -- and without the guilt.

But I do enjoy reading as much as possible, and today I got to read a lot. A few things worth recommending presented themselves:

* The Las Vegas Sun had a terrific piece by the very talented Kristen Peterson about a crappy downtown motel that got a big facelift and is now going after a boutique-hotel market niche. It's just crazy enough to work; I'm smelling a story in that one for me, actually. Peterson is consistently the best writer on fine arts and architecture in town and deserves more than the back-of-the-insert real estate she is often relegated to.

* The Wall Street Journal, aside from continuing to bring out more damaging information about possibly wrongdoings by Nev. Gov. Jim Gibbons and his wife (dissected on Hugh Jackson's Las Vegas Gleaner site today), had a fascinating center-column piece on miracle fruit -- no, really, that's its name -- from Africa that makes sour things taste sweet. The piece is here but since you can't get it online unless you're a registered subscriber, just go here and read about it on the Eatfoo.Com blog which is written by one of the key sources in the story.

* The Las Vegas Review-Journal's Benjamin Spillman had a good story about a tourism conference focusing on rural Nevada (but held, evidently, in Primm, just outside Vegas.) What amused/fascinated/saddened me about this was the poor soul from the Elko tourism board sort of admitting that the only way to attract, say, Chinese tourists, is to help them pretend like they have business in Elko's gold mines in order to get visas to come to the US&A. The logic was bizarre, but the thrust was clear: There is no legit reason why almost anyone would want to go to Elko for a vacation, least of all overseas travelers. Just give up already and give Vegas your water.

* Jennifer O'Connor of PETA offered a really harsh rebuke of the Iditarod that had me starting out saying "Oh, come on" and ending planning some hard-hitting questions for Vern Halter of Dream A Dream Dog Farm, who showed us dogsledding in Alaska last week, when we get him on The Petcast. Most interesting was her point that the Iditarod would be illegal on animal-cruelty grounds in most other states. (Note: The editorial ran in the R-J but I found it online from a different newspaper. Kudos to the R-J, which is a fairly conservative newspaper, for publishing it even though I doubt the editors agree with it.)

Hey, Sweetheart, Git Me Some Wings!

KVBC's terrific Denise Rosch did this hilarious piece this week about the El Cortez offering a fancy tableside or slotside food service so gamblers don't have to get up off their asses to eat OR play.

The guy into the wings is just a scream. Find it here.