The Troubles With Christina

Here's this week's Las Vegas Weekly column, the first of two about Christina Binkley's "Winner Takes All." Next week, I'll report reaction to the book from the likes of Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson and Terry Lanni. Read my USA Today review here.

April 2, 2008
The Strip Sense: Gaffe Factory
Noted WSJ writer nearly sinks book on Las Vegas through factual errors

by Steve Friess

A few days ago, USA Today published my review of the new book by Wall Street Journal columnist Christina Binkley on Vegas moguls. In it, I explained why I enjoyed reading Winner Takes All despite its enormous flaws, that Binkley almost despite her own sloppiness managed to render an intriguing and entertaining inside look at the past two decades of Vegas development.

In the context of a book review, though, it isn’t possible to delve into the really important factual problems presented in this effort. Longtime Las Vegans might be interested in the laundry list of mistakes I’ve been accumulating ever since I obtained a preview copy back in December.

But first, why be so intense about analyzing one of a zillion books due to appear about Las Vegas this year? Because Christina Binkley isn’t any ol’ author. She is arguably the most important national journalist ever to pay serious attention to Las Vegas. Before she took on the gaming beat in the late 1990s, the topic was—and still is at most national publications—viewed as an adjunct to the hospitality beat. That’s progress; for a long, long time it was just part of the Mafia beat.

So this book is her doctoral dissertation now that she’s moved on to become a columnist. And yet it’s rife with factual mistakes.

The accuracy problems begin with her clichéd title. One of the things we all know about Vegas is that there is never one winner who takes all. There’s always more, or else there would be no Elad, Station, Maloof, Landry’s, Tamares, Marnell.

But that may be seen as a subjective complaint. The following aren’t. Binkley ...

READ THE REST HERE

The Strip is LIVE... Wednesday @ 7 pm PT

Sorry. Miles isn't well. He never really gave himself a chance to recover from all the travel and the jetlag and now he's been home sick for the second day with a cold and overall misery.

We'll plan to do the LIVE show Wednesday at 7 pm PT. But it's worth the wait. Look who we've got...

Join us for the live chat at LVRocks.Com or wait till Thursday for the podcast.

THE SWISS CAT CONTROVERSY

I couldn't help myself. Yes, we were going on vacation to Europe. But a week before, I stumbled by accident across a piece in the Telegraph in London about a movement to get the Swiss government to outlaw the import, export and trade of cat fur and garments.

It seemed like a perfect piece for the New York Times. And it is! My piece on this odd matter runs in the April 1 editions of both the Times and the International Herald Tribune. And yes, this does make my vacation largely tax deductible. Yay.

In addition to that, I put together a 12-minute video interview as a special edition of The Petcast from our trip to SOS Chats, a 260-cat refuge in the far western mountains of Switzerland where we met Tomi Tomek. She operates the refuge, which is also her home, and has led the movement to get cat fur banned in Switzerland. On the video, Tomi shows us her place, explains the stories behind some of the cats and shows the cat furs she has purchased to prove to the media and politicians that such a trade actually exists.

You can view the video here:


(Sorry, it's too long, evidently, for YouTube. Boo.)

Here are some photos that Miles took while we were up there at the refuge. This is Tomi of SOS Chats...

They have a huge spread for the cats to frolick in...


And the cats have free reign over the outside and the inside...


This is probably my favorite shot. Yes, there's a dog. One dog. And 260 cats. Can you count how many cats are in this photo?


Tomi says she knows the names of each of them and their stories. Here she's being kissed by one as she sits in front of the well-organized medical records for the refuge.


Surprisingly, the place was NOT a stinking mess. It was very sanitary and orderly, probably because they use a LOT of this...


And to give you some idea of where this place was, look at the charming little train depot...


And this is the artsy shot of the village that I took...


In the process of this piece, I also got a tour of the Swiss Parliament in Bern from a prominent lawmaker. Still, there were limits and unauthorized persons, including journalists, can't enter the actual floor of the House chambers. But you can shoot a nice photo through the glass...


Or you can be escorted by a prominent lawmaker into the gallery where you can shoot a photo like this one...


As many readers know, I have a thing for capitals. Mostly state capitals, but I'm starting a national capital collection, too. Bern was the 14th capital I've been to so far. (Others are Sydney, Washington DC, Beijing, Taipei, Bangkok, Singapore, Hanoi, Phnom Penh, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Seoul.)

So, without further ado, here's the obligatory mug of me outside the capital building...


Peace out. And give a little something while you're at it to SOS Chats. They're performing miracles up there in the Swiss mountainside.

Name That Carpet!

The Review-Journal did something fun in Sunday's paper! No, really!

Sonya Padgett of the Features section offered this entertaining quiz and piece on the Vegas casino carpeting. Go here and try to guess which rugs belongs to which resort. Don't scroll down too far or you'll hit the answers before you're ready.

Also worth your time from Sunday's paper was a column by John L. Smith about a 65-year-old known as the "first lady of fingerprints" for the Vegas cops. She's got some terrific tales about the hands she's printed, from Elvis to Liberace to Johnny Cash. I love these sorts of stories.

And, finally, the Las Vegas Sun's Alexandra Berzon is turning the spotlight for two days on the rash of deaths on Vegas construction projects and the lame actions of governing authorities in these tragedies. The package is complete was a terrific set of online features that include and interactive maps and moving video interviews with survivors. It's a powerhouse effort. The most powerful piece, though, is this bit of information: Nine deaths in 16 months on is more, Berzon writes, than "were reported during the entire 1990s building boom on the Strip."

God Bless the United States of Switzerland

I'm still finishing up my blogging on Switzerland. I wanted to share these pictures because I loved what they said about trans-Atlantic culture.

First up, we found this cafe in Geneva called Central Perk. And, if it wasn't entirely clear where they got it from, note the indication that it's "Just like FRIENDS" on the sign. What was fun was that then I found out that there's Wikipedia entry for Central Perk that indicates there's Central Perks in Geneva and in Dubai. Evidently, the guy who played Gunther is the spokesdude for the Dubai version.


Across the street from Central Perk was this skateboard park...


At the main Zurich train station, there was this board to help Starbucks addicts learn where to get their fix...

On the telly, there was a lot of British TV and one show involved a very, very young version of the actor, Dominic Monaghan, who played/plays (he's dead, but that means little on this show) on "Lost"...


Of course, there was the McDrive...

...and evidently they toss old sneakers over powerlines in every culture...

It was strange that it was Duracell that was emphasizing the bunny aspect...


And, finally, I thought this was intriguing. Coop is the dominant convenience store and more in Switzerland. On the highways, they offer Coop Pronto ...


...which is interesting because this is a nation where French, Italian and German are first-languages for sizable populations. What language do they NOT speak? Spanish. So they employ the word "pronto" to sound, well, exotic. Hmm...

New Signs of the Vegas Apocalypse...

I just saw a mouse.

I'm sitting here in a piece of the Toscana ballroom at the Venetian awaiting the all's-clear from my editors at The New York Times after filing some stuff from a John McCain press "availability" that turned out to be about seven minutes and five questions long. So much for the Straight Talk Express in Vegas.

But, anyhow, I just saw a mouse. I big, furry, ugly one. It scampered across the room on its way to some place important. Gross. I tried to find it to show you what the rodent infestation looks like at the Venetian, but he seems to be gone. I did put down a big piece of mozzarella cheese on the floor where I last saw him hoping he'd come back. I guess that only works in Tom and Jerry cartoons.

But it reminded me of something else. Loyal reader/listener Troy in Las Vegas had sent this pic last week while we were on vacation. It's of the metal work on the inside of the glass atrium of at the Palazzo, an area now open for nearly four months. As you can see, someone forgot to remove two big pieces of tape. Nice.


Also, Troy points out, there seems to be a ladder outside leaning against the window. And all of it is still there today when I've looked.


Mice and painters tape is gross and silly respectively. But it's easy to miss. What is NOT easy to miss is that the Trump building, which isn't even open to the public yet, already has a marquee lighting problem. This was taken last night...


So far as I recall, all five letters were fully illuminated the last time I checked. But now the M and P are already out. Weird.

And finally, I have to say that I am starting to agree with Miles about the look of Encore standing besides the Wynn. They're like twins standing in an oddly askance pose. It's as if nobody really stopped to think about what they would look like side by side. What they look like is off-kilter.

Oh, and they just put up the Encore sign. There's no period. It's just Encore with a long script e.


It's worth noting because, really, the whole thing about the period after "Wynn" was that it emphasized some sort of finality. "This is the Wynn - period." Encore, then, ought to have some sort of punctuation, too, to show it's part of the same thought or, perhaps, that it is the next thought. Maybe it should be ". . .Encore," like Celine's ". . . A New Day," which never made any punctuatory (is that a word?) sense. Or maybe -- and this would rock -- "Encore!" At least it would show they're excited about it, y'know?

Education, Vegas Style

My friend Bob just had the supreme honor of having a new Clark County school named after him. It's a really big deal and couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. He's a Vegas native and a community leader in many ways and he's really quite giddy about all this. It's charming to see.

I missed the school dedication (although the governor, two U.S. Reps, four county commissioners, five of seven school board members and a zillion others did make it.) So Bob took me over there on Thursday. It's a lovely place. Here's Bob with his school.

This wouldn't ordinarily be blog fodder except that I was fascinated and amused by the work the students had done to create a timeline of Las Vegas that coincides with a timeline of Bob's life for the dedication event. It struck me that the icons of Vegas are probably a LOT more interesting and fun for kids to play with than, say, the Native American Tribes of Long Island that I had to slog through as a kid growing up in Syosset.

For instance, how about making a model of the Stratosphere? (Bob is pointing at the bubble that indicated when it was built)...

...or drawing the Mirage's volcano...


...and the Venetian...

...the New York-New York rollercoaster...



...or the Luxor!

Certainly, population growth is as much a part of Vegas recent history as anything else...

...but my favorite part was the wall of money surrounding the "Fabulous Las Vegas" sign!

Oh, and this is fun, too. They also peered a little bit into the future, to note the coming $150 million performing arts center where, evidently, overweight children will sing karaoke...


The kids were awful cute, of course. Each one, in anticipation of the school's dedication ceremony, wrote Bob a letter or a story or something. They were all over the school, see?


And the best I saw was this one. It's from Orlando. I have no idea who Sabrina is, but I just love the second-to-last line of the letter...

...when Orlando hopes Bob succeeds in life!!! Priceless!